Halloween at Farmer Ted's Farm Park...
YES
ghoulish goings on at Farmer Teds on Halloween night as the end of
Farmer Ted's Halloweek came to a close. These are a few
shots that we took as we popped over.
For more information
about Farmer Teds go to:-
www.farmerteds.com. |
Rally Success turns National Journalist into local hero
NATIONAL
newspaper sports journalist Jonathan McEvoy scored a second
impressive rally finish, this time in his native North Wales in the
Cambrian Rally on 4 November 2006 which finished on Llandudno sea
front as he was cheered home, the local hero. Born in Rhyl, Jon -
previously a regional journalist in North Wales and Liverpool -
received plaudits from his former colleagues and local spectators
after bravely agreeing to accept his second rally challenge with the
Sportinglife.com team, following the Plains Rally last
month. Ultimately, Jon has been set the task of co-driving at
international level in the World Rally Championship finale at the
Wales Rally GB in December. With backing from the Daily Mail, he
will be writing about his quest along the way, while taking the
co-driving seat alongside rally driver and Liverpool born
broadcaster Tony Jardine, who has set him the arduous task of
obtaining an international navigators license in time for the WRC
event.
By finishing 38th overall and third in class, out of 83 crews who
made it to the finish on the national Cambrian Rally, McEvoy is now
half way through his challenge – he has two events and two upgrades
under his belt and two to go before qualifying as an international
co-driver. But it proved to be a trying second event for McEvoy, as
the team very nearly failed to finish when they were close to being
knocked out by the clock.
While Jon was in navigational difficulties having to use small maps
instead of the normal detailed road books, car 16’s seasoned
navigator Vicky Johnson came to the rescue on Friday with full
ordnance survey maps to help McEvoy find the difficult forest stage
entrances.
The next time the team saw Vicky she was frantically waving at the
Sportinginglife.com crew to slow down - she had just survived a huge
crash with her driver Nik Elsmore and was to come to the rescue
again slowing their M-Sport Fiesta to avoid the wreck.
Also damaged on the
same stage was Steve Perez’s £200,000 classic Lancia Stratos, once
driven by rally legends Sandro Munari and Markku Alen.
Immediately after the incident of Vicky Johnson’s crew, the Castrol
Fiesta of Jardine and McEvoy took a wrong turn on the forest access
roads ending up having to reverse painfully and slowly up half a
mile of tight forest track. Then, they had to dodge support vehicles
coming at them down a single track lane as they tried to locate the
sixth and longest stage of the day. McEvoy and Jardine just scraped
into the time control by seconds, aware that they nearly lost a
precious upgrade signature through a non finish.
Jardine commented:- “The Cambrian Rally system with no road
books and only small colour maps to cover miles of complex welsh
forests, left even experienced navigators bewildered – never mind a
journalist thrown in at the deep end on only his second ever rally!
The clock nearly knocked us out but instead we survived to take
third in class. Jon was cool throughout, I’m impressed, he passed
his second test!”
The team also managed to survive a high speed puncture as one of
their normally bullet proof Kumho tyres was sliced open by some
razor sharp rocks at the end of special stage five. “Luckily
it was in an open space at the end of a stage, we didn’t hit
anything and we were able to change it”, said McEvoy. Team
boss Olly Marshall, of ProSpeed in York, who runs the Castrol backed
Ford Fiesta on behalf of the Sportinglife.com rally team, was
pleased his charges finished their second rally in style.
Marshall said:- “This event included the challenging North
Wales stages of Penmachno and Clocaenog near Betws-y-Coed and five
cars were wrecked alone in the first forest stage. Jon and Tony kept
up a great pace all day dealing with some very difficult conditions
so to end third in class is a great performance and the car was in
great shape unlike many others. Now we are half way to the World
Championship qualification.”
The rally started early on the Saturday with a blast around the
perilous Great Orme cliff road high above the Irish Sea. The rally
then finished with a blast back round the Orme, but this time in the
opposite direction.
McEvoy said:- “I was feeling tired after all the navigational
problems and continual concentration but the thought of the sea 300
feet below the sheer cliff road soon woke me up.”
Driver Tony Jardine
who now works for Sky Sports said:- “I turned to Jon after the
rally was over to congratulate him but he was too tired to enjoy the
result. I reminded him that if we get to Wales Rally GB WRC in
December we will have completed about one eighth of the distance, a
mere scratch. Clearly he needs more training but he is getting
there.” |