Jeff Garnett

With both the manufacturers and drivers titles already won, Colin McRae going through the motions at Ford prior to his move to Citroen and Richard Burns being second best to Marcus Gronholm all season at Peugeot I wasn't all that excited about the Rally this year.

That being said, the 2002 Network Q Rally of Great Britain was one of the best Rally GB's that I've attended, and was certainly the best I've enjoyed since the event moved to Cardiff. Following on from a disastrous 2000 when we missed stages due to traffic, got the car broke into, broke the clutch and then suffered the final indignity of the AA tow truck breaking down, followed a 2001 Rally where stages were again missed, one through traffic and one because it was cancelled we looked forward to 2002 with a little trepidation.

The early signs were not good, where were our tickets? It's Friday morning and I'm going to Cardiff on Wednesday. A registered delivery on Friday means a trip to Bolton Post Office on Saturday morning where I discover my Super Special and Shakedown tickets but still no sign of the programmes or event passes. I'm late into work on Monday waiting for the Postman but still no passes, but when I return home I find 10 programmes have been delivered. I'm getting seriously worried now, I'm setting off in less than 36 hours.
Another late start on Tuesday, but the wait for the Postman is rewarded with 5 Event Pass 2's. I'm going to Cardiff, I'm going to watch the finest drivers in the world and, finally, I can stop worrying, but why did the passes have to be pink?

Wednesday
Things don't get off to a good start. I'm setting off for Cardiff at 9:30. I make an early trip to the bank to get some money and then I'm back home to load the car. I'm just rearranging the seats when I can hear a hissing sound, "B******!", I thought to myself, I've got a puncture. Had the Network Q demon struck again? One new tyre and one Asda breakfast later the adventure is underway. Myself and mates Oz and Winnie are off to Cardiff.

Thursday
An early start and it's off to Rheola for the shakedown. First impressions of the new spectator areas are not good. The walk from the Car Park to the Spectator Area involves crossing a patch of land that could have doubled as the Krypton Factor Assault Course. And then it happened, the heavens opened and we got drenched. But it was November and I was stuck up a mountain in South Wales, what else would one expect? Little did we know this would be the last we saw of the wet stuff all weekend.

Back to Cardiff to meet up with some more friends. Rally 'virgins' Andy & Martin had decided to follow us round the rally and let us show them the ropes. I'm sure they were completely oblivious to the happenings on our recent trips to Cardiff. We get down to Cardiff Bay in good time and have a drink in one of the many bars in the Atlantic Wharf complex, before making use of the Park & Ride facility down to the Super Special.

Then it's here - the moment we've been waiting for all week. The moment when the messing about stops and the serious stuff starts. Special Stage 1 of the 2002 Rally of Great Britain, the Cardiff Super Special is about to get underway. It's man against man, machine against machine, and with a crackle and a pop they're off. Some 15 races later it's the Battle of Britain, the People's Champion Colin McRae against his archrival Richard Burns. It's round 1 to McRae, but both Petter Solberg and Markko Martin make their intentions clear with quick times round the 1.5-mile stage. We get back to the car in good time and head off to Brechfa in readiness for tomorrow's action.

Friday
I'm up and ready, this is proper forest rallying on what is still considered one of the most demanding WRC events. No problems with stage access, a short walk to the staggered crossroads on the stage and watch all the cars through. Already, I've noticed how much quieter it is here than it was last year. I find a different place to stand for the second running, close to the junction where McRae had run off the road earlier. We return to the car and get the stove on ready for an eagerly awaited breakfast.

We're waiting the second run, but then hear the dreaded news that it's been cancelled due to spectator overcrowding earlier in the stage. By the time we've got back to the car the rumours are already starting as to the stoppage reason. Firstly it's badly positioned spectators at the place MotoGP's Valentino Rossi has earlier exited the rally, then it's because someone's punched a marshal.
I later learned from the driver of the 0 Course Car that the FIA Safety Delegate cancelled the stage due to spectator problems at a junction, but when they drove through the stages minutes later there was no problem. Was this a case of the FIA flexing it's muscles or were there genuine safety fears on the stage? I also discovered that a marshal was assaulted on the stage in an act of disgraceful behaviour.

We decide on a trip to the service area at Felindre before heading to the brand new Walter's Arena section of the Rheola stage. Traffic from the A465 up to the car park at Rheola is bad and I get the impression that the local constabulary are only interested in catching speeding motorists rather than assisting rally fans in their movement around South Wales. The car is literally dumped in a space at Rheola. I'm sorry to the marshal I ignored but I'd paid £90.00 for a Rally Pass and already missed one stage today. The car was parked right next to the refreshment van so we literally had to walk 20 yards.

First impressions of Walter's Arena was that they'd tried to make a Sweet Lamb in South Wales, the viewing area was nowhere near as good as Sweet Lamb though. For some reason someone had decided to put a road right through the main spectator banking. The first couple of spectators got a great trackside view but the rest had to stand some 30/40m further back in order to see. We had no problems leaving Rheola and then drove to our overnight base at a campsite just outside Llandovery. A few beers and a good steak ended the day.

Saturday
An early start followed by the short drive to the Halfway Stage up on the Epynt Ranges. I've been trying to get onto this stage in both 2000 and 2001 and have missed it on both occasions due to traffic congestion so it comes as something of a relief to make it here.
Firstly, breakfast is the order of the day, so out comes the stove and the bacon once more. We walk up to the Halfway stage at Dixie's Junction. Oz and Winnie decide to go left and downhill to a quieter place to take some photographs. Andy, Martin and myself decided to stay at the crest just over the crossroads after deciding that there were too many people at Deers Leap.

Little did we know at the time that we were about to witness one of the most dramatic stages of this year's entire WRC. By this time Marcus Gronholm was walking away with a victory, Solberg and Martin were immersed in a battle for second place and McRae and Burns were seriously off the pace. The top 15 cars were running in reverse order so first through the stage was tarmac specialist Gilles Panizzi. As more and more cars passed over this short tarmac section it was noticeable that more and more dirt was being dragged out onto the sealed surface. There were more than a couple of wiggles and twitches by cars going over the crest. Next up was Gronholm, the new World Champion, the rally leader, a man who never crashes. What unfolded in front of me is something that will be remembered for a very long time.

The noise of a car screaming up the hill at full tilt towards Dixie's got louder then into view came Gronholm, into the crest and then, there in front of me it all went horribly wrong. He slid wide and clipped a bank pitching a £250,000 Peugeot 206 WRC into a barrel roll. Over and over it went before coming to a final resting position on the other side of the road. It was clear there and then that Gronholm's rally was over, yet when I later watched the in-car footage Gronholm's first action after the roll was to try and get going again. The crowd were aghast, stood there in sheer disbelief than the man who had not crashed for some 18 months was human after all. Gronholm had reacted angrily to earlier jibes from both Brits that he was lucky, here he most certainly was not. Spectators had only just began to absorb what they had just seen when the next car, that of young Finn Jani Paasonen could be heard approaching. A marshal frantically waved in order to slow Paasonen and warn him of Gronholm's wreckage just out of site over the crest.

All the spectators and media that had massed a couple of hundred metres away at Deer's Leap sprinted along to Dixie's to see what all the fuss was about, I rang Oz to tell him of what I'd just seen. But then in a case of déjà vu exactly the same thing occurred. Paasonen slid wide, clipped the bank and ended up in an even more violent roll than this compatriot. Paasonen's Mitsubishi came to rest just feet away from Gronholm's Peugeot. It didn't end there though, Polish driver Kuchar hit the crest and although he didn't roll he had damaged his Toyota to such an extent that he retired on the spot. At the end of it the stage had to be cancelled and £750,000 worth of rally car lay wrecked in front of me.

There were serious doubts as to whether the second stage through Halfway would take place. All the wreckage had to be cleared or moved to a safer place, spectators who had congregated around the stricken vehicles had to be ushered back into the spectator pens. The second stage through Halfway was less dramatic and passed without any further incidents. So it was back down to the Nation's capital for another running of the Super Special. Colin McRae's spin exiting the tunnel was the only thing of note and we luckily caught the second bus back to the car park thus missing out on the ensuing chaos.

Sunday
Sunday started high up on top of the Rhigos Mountain on the car breaking Resolfen stage, the longest stage of the event. By now it looked as though either the excitable Petter Solberg or the quietly efficient Markko Martin would end the 2002 WRC by recording their first ever win at that level. Again nothing much of note occurred in the way of incidents, but trying to exit the car park afterwards was a joke, spectators had double parked their cars thus blocking any traffic leaving the stage until they had.

Once we had escaped Resolfen we were off to Margam for the final 2 stages of the Rally. We watched the first Margam stage away from the main spectator area in Margam Park and headed up the hill to watch the cars head downhill into the park. Then with one final dramatic twist Richard Burns' Peugeot slid off the road and out of the rally at an innocuous corner he's driven dozens of times just as it looked like he would grab the final step on the podium. And so it was upon us, no sooner had we been at the Super Special on Friday evening, I was stood alongside the flying finish of the Rally's final stage.

By now Solberg just had to keep his nerve to claim that first victory, and Martin despite the most valiant of efforts would have to settle for the second step on the podium. In the end the Norwegian's nerve held to claim a popular first ever victory. Martin was the first of 4 Ford drivers to finish in the points with a highly creditable second. Veteran Carlos Sainz, in what was possibly his last works drive claimed the final step on the podium. Solberg's Subaru team mate Tommi Makinen claimed 4th on a rally that it seems he is never destined to win. A below par McRae finished 5th and the likeable Manxman Mark Higgins claimed 6th overall and with it his first ever World Rally Championship point. Another car parking nightmare leaving Margam meant that I arrived back at our hotel some 45 minutes behind Andy and Martin despite setting off only 2 minutes after them.

There were some good points of the rally, the weather except Thursday was brilliant, the spectator areas weren't as bad as first feared. There was some superb action with creditable drives from Solberg, Martin and Higgins.

The minus points, the car park entry at Rheola was bad and the exits at Resolfen & Margam were appalling. The lateness that the tickets were received was a worry right up until the day before I set off. The park and ride scheme for the Super Special didn't work as well as required, this is a mystery as P&R is also used for the events at the Millennium Stadium and I've never had a problem before.