Somerset Stages

I had every good intention of heading to the Somerset Stages and really being on top of the results, starting order, retirements etc… I even brought my notepad and pen in an attempt to write up all the information to post on my blog. My attempts this weekend however were thwarted – but I wasn’t the only one to be pretty lost with the action in Minehead.

Having never been before I made sure to log onto the website beforehand to get some information on stage locations, times and car parking areas where I found out that there was only one stage that the organisers wanted spectators to watch from (something to do with the forestry commission and Exmoor National Park).
I also noticed on the website it said that the stage was a ten minute walk from the car park however there would be a ‘steep climb out’.
I’m not sure about you, but ‘steep climb out’ in a designated spectator stage means, to me, a little hill that you would get slightly out of breath on. Oh no, this was the side of a mountain. I actually saw one gentleman on crutches and I’ve no idea how he got back up to the car park. It was difficult enough for some of those who were relatively fit! I noticed many taking advantage of the strategically placed bench half-way up.

Picking our seat on the side of said mountain, it seemed that the organisers had also chosen the one corner of the entire rally with little to no sunshine – I like to think this is the reason my photos leave little to be desired… numb fingers.
They had also managed to chose an area within stage that contained a concealed marsh which one poor soul discovered much to the amusement of the rest of the gathered crowd after he (accidentally) ventured in and subsequently sunk and lost a shoe.

Soon enough the cars were gracing the stage and while I absolutely adored watching them I found the whole thing completely confusing, Maybe it’s because I’m too used to following the rigid structure of the WRC and IRC – most probably – but even my dad (who had competed on these stages back in the 80’s) found it somewhat disjointed.

This stage (in Chargot Woods) had previously been run in the morning and was to be run twice that afternoon. But instead of running completely through the order and then starting all over again it seemed the runners started as and when the got to the start-line after the first pass. Even the commentator was slightly lost by the whole set-up.
Some cars even passed up by with him having ‘no idea who the hell’ they were!
Obviously this meant following the actual results became impossible (especially with no phone/3g signal but that‘s hard enough in the local supermarket so I‘ll ignore that!)

However you can’t take away the fact that the action itself was great and it was a fabulous day out. And I did get some (pretty bad) pictures, don’t worry though I’m not thinking of taking up photography full time! 😉