When I first took an active interest in motorsport, it was the
reports for the "Motoring News" road rallies that
caught my eye back in 1986. Here it seemed , was a motorsport
discipline that could be done in my own road car, with only a few
go faster bits required. The Mini that was my transport at the
time (1300cc and drum brakes!) was half heartedly prepared with a
sumpguard that gave all of 2" of ground clearance and some M20
Brake linings in the front drums.
Fortunately, the Mini failed it's MOT in spectacular fashion
before it could be used in combat, and any road rallying urges
were satisfied by going spectating in 1986/87. Then the RACMSA
changed the rules governing Road Rallying so it became much more
navigation orientated. I lost interest in competing on them
almost immediately.
Ten years on - despite working on Richard Lumb's Estelle all
this time, I still hadn't bothered. That is until Richard offered
me the chance to navigate on an event. His regular navigator,
John Pickavance, would be spectating on the Tour of Mull at the
same time as the 061 Road Rally. I agreed, advising him that he
shouldn't expect a brilliant performance first time out. Practice
on Harry and Steve's 12 car proved better than expected. We won
and the only concern that I had at this point was whether I would
be able to keep my tea down for 150 miles.
The start was in Buxton and Richard would pick me up on the
Saturday night at 7.30pm. He duly arrived and commented that the
car had started misfiring. Ten minutes later, we were parked in a
lay-by on the A52 investigating the problem further. This
indicated that there might be a possible problem with the
distributor (A noted Skoda weak spot.) We didn't have a spare, (we
had everything else though) so we carried on, the engine would
run flat until it reached 3000rpm and then would behave
reasonably, then misfire on the overrun.We reached Ashbourne and
then the fog rolled in. We had to slow to a crawl and were
starting to worry if we'd even make Buxton in time.
Eventually, we found the noise test -after I'd missed a
junction. This would set the tone for the evening. We passed
noise, the car narrowly avoiding being flattened by some prat in
an artic who decided that he wanted to turn his lorry at the same
point. Scrutineering passed without incident. I have always held
a rather romantic view of road rallying, you know - man and
machine against the elements and all that stuff. It was now
drizzling on Buxton, which quickly bought me to my senses. This
start venue was a pimple on the bum of nature.
The event counted towards the EMAMC championship, whose rules
stipulate that the navigator should not have to possess the
mental abilities of Albert Einstein to plot the route. This meant
a diet of Tulip diagrams and Grid references. Good. We left the
start and headed to the Goyt Valley, just on the north east
corner of map 118. This first road section had 45 minutes
allocated, which gave us time to plot all the non- competitives,
and rejoin points for the first half.
The heavens opened again, and I for once was glad to be sat in
a nice warm car instead of marshalling. We started the first
competitive section and cleaned it. On the transport section,
Richard says "How does it feel to be leading a road rally?"
I guess we were sharing the lead with half the field at that
point.
The rest of the event didn't go nearly as well, trying to keep
track of the clipboards and pencils seemed to be a full time
occupation, let alone having to plot as well. As a result, I kept
missing junctions. Everytime you wrongslot, you can say goodbye
to cleaning that section. Up to this point, we hadn't actually
missed a code board or control.
My most embarrassing moment of poor navigation was when I lost
track of where we were on the map around Hartington. Embarrassing
because the Jones family used to spend most summer weekends
camping near Hartington, It was the last place I'd have expected
to get lost!
The weather started to clear and driving conditions were much
improved. And towards the end of the first half, we came across
the first white (Unmade road) of the event.
A white, a real Derbyshire white, the stuff of legends and the
cause of so much repair work for me over the years. It has taken
me some time to actually come up with words to describe how rough
it was, and the only two that spring to mind are "Badger's"
and "Arse"
"Iiiiiiiiitttttttttttt'sssss verrrrrrryyy bummmppyyyy,
iissssnnnn'ttttt iiiiitt," said I.
"Thisss iiiisss one ooofff tthhhe ssmmooootherr onesssss"
replied Richard.
So there we were, with the front of the car grounding out on
the track and me wondering what kind of damage it was inflicting
underneath. We got to the end of that section and then passed
through the village of Ilam en-route for the next competitive. At
this point we were probably 26 minutes into our 30 maximum
permitted lateness so we elected to miss a code board and a
control and cut to petrol, rejoining the event a bit further up
the road. We arrived at TTC20 only 15 minutes down now and
eventually made the halfway (A car park at Carsington water)
where the lateness allowed would be back to a full 30 minutes.
I even wrongslotted in the car park!
As I plotted the non-comp sections, Richard set about giving
the car the once over. He had learnt to live with the misfire and
I was hoping that I could give better directions in the second
half.
Off we go, the first two code boards were somewhere down the
road, so it was a case of in and out of concealed lay-bys to find
them. The first was found relatively easily but then as Richard
was doing a 3 point turn in someones drive, a mile after the
halfway halt, a scraping noise appeared under the car. Richard
got out to look and found that the NSF lower wishbone had sheared:
A legacy of the battering it received on that white.
That was it, we were out. The gods smiled on us in one sense
as there was a payphone nearby. Richard called the RAC (As an
associated club member, he is able to get his car recovered on
events. See ad for details) This was at 4.15am.
At 5.00am, a LWB Transit fitted with a spectacle lift arrived
from Matlock. At 5.02am, we were off. At 5.30am, they dropped me
off at Gregory's rose gardens on the A52. Look at the map
sometime and work out the average speed for us. Carsington Water
is halfway between Matlock and Ashbourne.
Anyway, my thanks to Richard for even entertaining the thought
that I might be able to cope with the navigation on such an
event, and proving to have just enough patience to last. Our
thanks go to Andrew Lumb for fitting the brake pads and generally
assisting with preparation
Ian Jones