My WRC Experience by Brandon Lewis

November 13th 2013

Day 1, 9:15 am  the start of the WRCGB at Deeside service park, there were nine students. The weeks events were very unknown, things appeared un-organised and we had no idea what we would be doing in the up and coming days. The first day consisted of looking around the service park getting to know the scrutineers, the initial sight of the WRC cars in person was awesome. We new that the next day had a lot more in store.

Day 2, 9:15 am It was a really windy day, the wind was so cold. Three of the students, Dan L, Key and Jake were taken to start tyre marking. They shortly came back and were told they were not needed until late night 9:00 pm they were not impressed. Me and three others Dan W, Tom and jack were shown how to do tyre scanning this seemed like such a nerving task, we had a really aggressive swede making sure we were fast, correct and getting it all right, proper scary guy. We found this more exciting and things started to get more organised. Later that day we were sent off to the Coleg Cambria site, all the rally cars were being drove into college for servicing, helmet and overall checks. Weird seeing World Rally cars in college workshops.

Day 3, 6:15 am! A proper early start and I felt dead, the feeling of walking through the service park at 6 in the morning was mad. We had passes to go straight through security so we had no trouble getting in, I felt boss. We found that four students Dan L, Key, Jake and Shaun had not shown up due to the lack of organisation and them not being assigned a job. They were sick of turning up early morning and not having anything to do however with a little more self motivation they could have included themselves more, this in turn would have got them more involved and organised. I was close to giving up too but I'm glad I stuck it out. That morning we were tyre marking as the cars went off to the stage, we finished at around 8 am.
We then went on a mad road trip down mid Wales, 'Newtown' we went straight to McDonald's for some breakfast the highlight of the experience. We were tyre scanning and sticker tagging the rally wheels as they left for more stages. Then we headed home to catch some sleep ready for another early start.

Day 4, 6:15 am Weather not too cold, but up early in two teams tyre scanning and sticker tagging rally cars as they left for the stage, it was a giant rush car after car but was fun being right in the action we managed to grab an autograph by Amy Williams a co-driver, I felt sorry for the driver as we never bothered him and he's the main person. After this mad tyre scanning session we had a few hours off until late afternoon. So Dan went home for some sleep and me and jack stayed and had a proper look around the service park, we found a Citroen driving simulator which was pretty cool, given an awesome insight in to actual WRC driving. Dan came back, picked us up in his touring rally snow plough Vectra and we went off to Chirk castle to watch a stage, this made us realise how close to the cars we actual had been.

Day 5, 6.15 am  Last day we were tyre scanning again in the morning, got given some free hats and stickers then three of us went home but jack stayed and went some where in Wales (cant spell it) to do the final tyre scan. I went to home to have actual sleep.