James Carruthers

This was the first time we went to the rally, and overall we had a great time.

We drove over from London on Friday morning, aiming to be at Brechfa 2 by 10am. No sooner had we turned off the motorway, did we see our first proper rally car, on the road! The Impreza's of Makinen and Solberg, and then 2 minutes later a Skoda. We were now pumped and ready for some rally action.

We arrived at the stage in perfect time, put on our boots and got to the spectator area. After about 45 minutes of waiting, we found that the stage had been cancelled. As there was nothing we could do about it we decided not to get too upset, headed back to the car and drove to the service area. We were quite disappointed by the service area. Lots of merchandise (all pretty much the same) - I guess the opportunity to watch the mechanics and see our favourite drivers was good, but overall a bit of a let down. We would not go back to the service again. We set off to Walters Arena, only to encounter a huge queue of cars at the entrance. There wasn't much space, so people started to park alongside the entrance road. We decided that by the time we walked up the hill it would pretty much be all over, so took a risk and drove as close as we could. We only managed to catch the tail enders - and decided we should get back to the car, as it could potentially be parked in a bit of a trouble spot. We headed off to our hotel, pretty much shattered from a long day. So we didn't encounter too much action on day one.

Day 2 was fantastic, the journey to Halfway was worth the trip to Wales in itself. We arrived in plenty of time - and chose to go to the hairpin. This was a great viewing area, not too packed if you went further down from the hairpin. Now a word of warning, don't try and cross a valley. It may not look that far, but it is. It's a long way, and it's over uneven ground. And it's wet, and has lots of hidden streams - which you'll probably fall into. Although it was funny, after having got to the otherside, to see about 20 other spectators following in out footsteps ... fools ! So after crossing from the hairpin to where Gronholm went off, Halfway 2 started, we didn't have very good positions to watch here - if you want to see the jump, get there early and get to the front of the fence. We ended the day at the Cardiff Superspecial, after driving back over the Black mountains, at night, that was even more amazing, about 4 or 5 spectators in convoy. Only the lights to see where we were going. Knowing that there's quite a big drop to one side too ... then at the top the rolling fog ... not being able to see more than the car in front ... wow ...

The superspecial was a big disappointment, it was chaotic, over-crowded, and really not that much fun. I guess we both prefer proper stages.

On the third day we decided to miss the first stage - as it was too early for us, as we were shattered from the walking at Halfway. So we aimed to get to Margam at a nice and early time. We walked straight to the fence at the water splash. That was a great place to spectate. Later we moved to the hairpin before the final part of the stage. This was another good place to spectate, although you couldn't see much before the hairpin itself. We left early with an aim to get out of the car park early, however we must have spent about 45 minutes getting out in the end.

Day 2 was definitely the best day, Halfway being the only real rally stage we managed to watch.

Some of the photo's I took are at http://www.pbase.com/jcarruthers/wrc_wales_2002