Once back at the Service Park we filled our faces on a full English breakfast and then went for a wander around the pits…"accidentally" walking through a gap in the fence and straight into the Ford pit area where they were working on Colin McRae's (MBE) Focus. Unfortunately we were quickly "asked" to leave. So we checked out the other manufacturers and headed back to the VIP lounge. As soon as we got there Des came running towards us with bags of food in his hands telling us that we needed to be on our way to get to SS10, Halfway 1, in time for the beginning of the stage. So with a long drive ahead of us G and me sat back and relaxed in our leather seats.

An hour or so later and we arrived but were directed into an army base. Why? So that they could check that we didn't have bombs or weapons…or Bin Laden in the boot. But after waiting around for 20 minutes they decided not to do the checks and let us on our way. Power mad the lot of them!

Just as we got parked up the stage began so we legged it to the first viewing point, a T-junction. Watching most of the front runners there we then headed down to the other viewing point, a long sweeping right hand bend with a nice cliff on the left hand side. After a few cars a big puff of smoke rose from another part of the track, quickly followed by an ambulance and then the air ambulance. About 10 minutes later a few privateers came, very slowly, around the track. Being nosy we asked a steward what was going on and he informed us that three cars had come off the track and that included Marcus Grönholm, whose car had done a double roll. Because of this the stage had been made non-competitive and would be cancelled as soon as the privateers on the stage had finished their runs.
With an hour's wait ahead of us we went off to the refreshment tent and grabbed a hot drink and a biscuit, or 12, and then headed off to the van to thaw out and eat our lunch.

At about 15:00 we headed back off to the viewing point to watch SS12, Halfway 2, but due to the earlier accident the drivers were given a choice. They could take a run on the track and then decide, when they got to the crash site, if they were running a timed stage or non-competitive, which to me seemed a bit un-fair.

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