Jon Tucker and Scott Cleverdon travelled to North Wales last weekend for the Astra Stages, the 2nd round of both the Peugeot 206 Super Cup and ANCRO championships.  After the problems they had had on the previous round, Rallye Sunseeker, they were looking for a solid finish to net some points in the Peugeot Championship.

As this would be Jon’s first time ever in the forests in North Wales, they both would have been delighted with a top 6 position out of the 17 identical 206 XSi’s.

The stages were held in batches of 2 or 3 with services in between.  After the first loop of 2 stages in Clocaenog, they were lying 9th.  This was okay but not as high as they wanted so they decided to push up the pace a bit and try and match some of the front runners.  After another loop of 2 stages they had advanced into 7th.  This was a better position, but  they were still aiming higher and weren’t too far from the car in front.  A push in the next 2 stages in Penmachno had seen them take time out of the car in front, and a push through the last 3 stages could have seen them take 6th position.  Stage 7 went really well, and with only 2 stages to go both of the crew were really enjoying the event and the stages.

Disaster struck 4 miles into stage 8, when the car came out of a hairpin bend and lost all drive to the wheels.  Jon and Scott both frantically tried to investigate the problem and get the car going again but it was to no avail.  The car simply wouldn’t drive.  After waiting for all the remaining cars to complete the stage they had to get the car towed out of the stage and retire from the event, meaning they wouldn’t receive any points in the Peugeot Cup.

Later investigation has found that the clutch has literally sheered in half.  Nothing Jon and Scott could have done would have got the car to drive.  A new clutch will be fitted in preparation of the next Peugeot round, which is on the Isle of Man.  The crew will ferry the car over and spend two days ‘recceing’ the island making their own pacenotes, which are what Scott uses to describe the road to Jon.  This is going to be a special event, and neither of them have been their before, so it will be a steep learning curve for them both.