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Post date: Feb 11, 2013 11:02:35 AM
Wow! 5th overall on my first national B road rally as a driver! A complete novice, 1st time on a road rally and second time in the car - how did that happen?! I would like to say that it was down to my skill as a driver, speed and natural talent but I would be disillusioned if I thought that! This was a rally that was won/lost in the navigators seat and huge respect to everyone that made it to the finish, especially those who managed to find every control and board!
This year I wanted to try something different, so I bought a car with the intention of brining some novices through in the silly seat, however as my first event it was the right decision not to do that with the Bruce. Fortunately I was able to draft in one of the best navigators in the country and due to Sam’s experience, encouragement (and discouragement) he got us a fantastic result. Probably the lack of pace was an advantage as when we did have to backtrack we didn’t have so far to go J
Huge thanks to the organisers who put tremendous amounts of effort into this event. Thanks to the marshals who did a fantastic job all night and well done to Ade and Ian on the win.
I am now really looking forward to my next event which will be a pre-plot event. I want fun in both sides of the rally car, and if we want to really bring navigators through the ranks (which we all agree we are short of) we need to make sure that the navigation is not only doable (which the Bruce was), but also needs to be able to be done within the time constraints of lateness, bearing in mind the range of experience of the navigators on an event. I wish more events in my local championships were more novice friendly, but I am willing to travel further afield to find them. Maybe something for organisers to think about...