After some last minute preparation we made it to the start of our first rally with the new Honda Exige, the New Brighton Promenade Rally. What started as a local rally has now become a major national event due to it’s special location on the sea front and popularity with spectators. It was a two day event with a Friday night super special stage where two cars ran head to head for 4 laps like a big scalextric.
Scrutineering is always a nervous time with a new car but the scrutineer was really friendly and we sailed through with no problem. We were seeded as car number 44.
It was a long wait for our turn on the super special stage. We were scheduled for a start time of 19:40 which was good as it was still just light. Due to delays we ended up with a start time of 8:15 in the dark, bugger, especially since we didnt have a lamp pod, only normal lights. As we queued for the start they lined us up against a tidy vauxhall powered mk2 escort. I didn’t want to throw it all away on the first stage but I was also aware that if you don’t push hard from the off then you’ll never make it up later since the rally is only 11 stages long.
The lights went out and we nailed it, I could see the escorts bonnet level with us until they split off left on the parallel circuit. It was very hard to see the roundabouts and kerbs in the dark so I had to listen hard to gareths route descriptions over the intercom. As we approached the finish line I had no idea where the escort was. When the clocks stopped we had taken 30 seconds off him with a time of 5 min 20 sec 
I was starting to like this Exige 
When we got back to the service area we conferred with my mate in his class winning 1400cc Nova, he had exactly the same time as us!! Full respect, he was on the limit. When all the runs were complete they reseeded the field and we were now seeded 27th for Saturday with Alistair right behind us in his Nova.
Gareth and I stayed late to watch the top seeds run in the dark. It was phenomenal, national Tarmac champion John Indri in his spectacular Darrian was up against last years winner in a S14 WRC Subaru. It was indri’s first time at the prom so I thought he might loose out in the dark but do better the next day. Not so. I’ve never seen a driver take 15 seconds off another of similar caliber, it was a sensational drive, what a car as well.
On the Saturday morning we were blessed with sunshine, perfect lotus conditions. Queuing for the start of SS2 the only complaint from the marshals wa that they had to kneel down to talk to us and fill in the time sheets
When the lights went out I had copious amounts of wheel spin in 1st and 2nd, mainly due to the amount of sand that had blown onto the road (for the rest of the day we set off in 2nd gear…and only used 3rd and 4th!). Gareth was telling me to brake later into the first chicane but with cold brakes, cold tyres and a cold driver I was more cautious. After a couple of corners I stepped up the pace and started to push, using the extra Honda torque to kick the tail round the hairpins, no handbrake required. It was a reasonable stage with no drama.
In service we checked with Alistair to compare times. A broad smile spread across my face as we had taken 11 sec off him on the stage. Now we’re talking 
[video:youtube]<LINK_TEXT text=“- YouTube … ata_player”>Promenade Rally 2012 Wes Jacklin - YouTube</LINK_TEXT>[/video]
I felt comfortable with the pace, constantly pushing myself to carry more speed through the fast corners, no silly risks in the tight Kerb sections. Several cars went out by hitting the water filled chicane barrels or launching over kerbs. It’s a very fine balance.
At lunchtime my service team (that’ll be Gareth) topped up the petrol and checked the wheel nuts. By now the service area was packed with spectators. As usual the Exige was hugely popular with swarms of people taking photos and kids having a sit in it. I have to say that people were really polite, asking permission to take photos - I need to get some sponsorship 
We continued with clean runs until ss7. It was a short burst off the start line into an off camber roundabout and island, I overcooked it around the island and did a 360 right in front of all the spectators, it could have looked very Ken Block but I stalled it and it took a while to restart. We dropped 20 seconds.
By mid afternoon our times had pushed us up into the top 20 and we were third in the 2000cc class out of 17 which was fantastic.
Going into the last stage we were still 3rd in class 4 sec ahead of the next guy in a mk2 escort with a sequential box but He was taking 6 sec a stage off us over the last few, no pressure. Either he had woken up or he’d put some new tyres on. I pushed hard on the stage but as we came up to a merge section the green Darrian that was going for 3rd overall came up parallel with me and had the inside for the next corner. We both braked to avoid a spill and I let him go first as he was quicker.
When we crossed the line I was delighted with our overall performance but a bit gutted to know that we just lost out on the class podium position by 1 sec 
later the Darrian driver came to apologise and said that he had 40 sec in hand over his rival and was actually trying to let me go first …arghhh, a lesson to me in the future is to talk to the other guys around you at the start.
Overall though it was an amazing debut for us with the new car. Final position was 15th overall out of 91 on a national event Despite jamming in 5th gear and jumping out of 2nd My friend Alistair won the 1400 class by 1min 30 and came home 29th overall
What is more satisfying is that we didn’t put a scratch on the car. We even ran all day on the same Kumho v70 medium compound track day tyres! There’s so much more potential in the car. We need to fit an LSD, Run proper slicks, fit the Ohlins and take off a few more kg.
Many thanks to Gareth for his superb delivery of pace notes. This type of event has many left right splits on multiple laps and catches out even the pro navigators, he called them all correctly. Nice one mate. Thanks also to my dad for looking after Scott junior all day at the rally, without babysitting services my entry was looking shaky
I’m also grateful to my neighbour Craig for filming and uploading the YouTube footage which he emailed to me even before I had my breakfast this morning, good effort.
Exiges rock, I’m glad I stuck with the plan 
very cool
where you thinking you could loose weight?
Yay hay well done, that’s great report and top event brilliant stuff
Well done
Fair play dude, nice write up.
Congratulations. Excellent report.
Thanks guys. Gareth has sent a link to some of the event photos
[color:#3366FF] RallyGallery photos [/color]
I liked this shot of an Escort in flight, lucky boy got away with it
Good write up & very well done
It was really good to get back into things with this rally. Praise for our result sits squarely with Wes who drove well throughtout the day. It is really difficult to get the balance of caution and pushing on with curbs ready to catch you out. Hitting them would probably mean game over, but he avoided them all whilst pushing for top times on every stage. We were both gutted to miss out on 3rd in class but when I studied the stage times we were in touching distance of 1st in class.
The pace of the car is first class with no high reving cams or lumpy tickover and was a please to navigate in. I am sure with a bit more development we will be up to first in class and who knows maybe even a top 5 finish!
One of the aspects I appreciated most was the accessibility of the even and the service area. I found it rewarding chatting to small kids explaining about the car and trying to get them involved in the sport. First class in every way!
just a shame there wasnt a few more Exige owners dropped by to say hello. Maybe next year?