The world of motor sport is full of engineering brilliance. Engineers analyse mountains of data to gain fractions of seconds, to save milligrams of weight from each corner to look to gain an advantage over their competitors. In the 1950s carbon fibre was the big discovery; this lightweight, heat defiant and extremely strong material has transformed many areas of motor sport through enhanced speed, strength and additional safety.
The 1950s was also a time of immense change for Thomas Tunnock Ltd. Thomas’ son Archie Tunnock developed the Caramel Wafer, grandson Tom, the Teacake and Tom’s younger brother, Boyd engineered the initial production in the factory to satisfy the huge demand for the wafers.
The factory is still on the original bakery site and the production lines now rely on robots with laser eyes synchronising with their carbon fibre arms to collate, package and box the 10 million biscuits that are produced weekly from the Tunnock’s factory in Uddingston. There are two of these multi-million pound robots working on the wafers and teacakes. They are German engineered but maintained by Boyd Tunnock’s grandson, Stuart Loudon.
This coming weekend Stuart will be heading to Germany, not to learn more about the Schubert Packing Machines but to contest his third round of the World Rally Championship alongside Irishman, Robert Barrable in their CA1 Sport prepared Ford Fiesta R5 resplendent in Tunnock’s colours.
Round 9 of the WRC starts in Cologne on Thursday 22 August, with two late afternoon stages (near Blankenheim and Sauteral) held on the route back to the event’s base in Trier. The following three days of competition takes place on various types of sealed-surface roads, with bumpy, narrow and switchback stages through the Mosel vineyards, fast and flowing roads through the Saarland countryside (which are treacherously slippery when wet) and on the abrasive concrete roads of the Baumholder tank training military area – infamously lined with unforgiving kerbstones, known as hinkelsteins.
After a fabulous second place in Portugal and a point-scoring place on the fast roads of Finland Stuart is looking forward to this event taking place on asphalt, “Rob has done a great job on the two gravel events but tarmac is his surface. He practices a lot with a kart and has even taken part in Formula Ford races in Ireland to keep up to speed about how a car preforms on tar.”
“Last weekend’s run at the Tyneside Stages was really about us getting familiar with the car. It wasn’t to get a result or to look at times but to see how everything performed. The R5 is just phenomenal; the way it stops is incredible. I feel so at home and comfortable in this car.”
“Germany is like three events in one. There are the stages through the Mosel vineyards that are very tight, where you have to be so neat and tidy as well as fast. Then there are the stages around the Saarland area that takes you through the forests. This is a bit like Barum Czech Rally Zlin where Rob and I were 5th last year, so we are looking forward to these stages. Then there are the stages around the US Army Garrison base, H D Smith Barracks or Arena Panzerplatte that is the longest stage on the event at almost 28 miles. This is probably the most famous stage of the event due to the hinklesteins that are there to keep the tanks on the road.”
During Rally Finland just ten days ago, whilst changing a puncture on special stage 11 Stuart badly burnt his left-hand when putting the wheel away in the back of the car, “I was holding the tyre and it slipped from my grip, instinctively I grabbed the wheel centre to stop it falling but it was red hot. My hand was badly burned. Fortunately there was a 50km road section next and I opened my drinks camel back and stuck my hand in there for the next hour to try and cool it down.”
Whilst the injury is healing the blisters are still prevalent and the fingertips are still tender. Not something that is handy when you have to read pages and pages of pace notes at speed in a rally car, especially as Arena Panzerplatte has over 100 junctions in its 28 miles. To try and protect the injury Stuart will wear a cotton surgical glove with a latex glove over the top of this to keep it all clean.
“It was a stupid mistake in Finland but the latex glove seemed to work at the weekend. I have gloves in my bag for changing the wheels but I thought I could save time by not taking them out. From now on they will be taped to the door of the car so that they are easy to get at and this doesn’t happen again.”
A Schubert Packaging Machine will pack 600 Tunnock’s Teacakes in a minute, the Tunnock’s World Rally Team Fiesta R5 will cover 600 metres in a matter of seconds yet both chocolate and motorsport all depend on engineering brilliance to deliver the best; brilliance that has taken years to perfect.
ADAC Rallye Deutschland – Itinerary
Thursday 22nd August – 16:00 – 19:58 two stages
Friday 23rd August – 10:41 – 17:53 six stages
Saturday 24th August – 08:03 – 16:51 six stages
Sunday 25th August – 09:18 – 11:36 two stages
Follow Stuart on Twitter – @stu_loudon or search on Facebook for Stuart Loudon
