I could write about the Reivers Rally and our plans, how our recce went etc… but ultimately none of it matters, because during the running of the Jim Clark Rally on the Saturday, Dai Roberts (co-driving for James Williams) died in a tragic accident.

Dirtfish remember Dai in their article, and a fundraiser has been set up for his family.

If you are able, please donate to support his family.

Our thoughts are with Dai’s friends and family, and we wish James Williams a full recovery.

Our third time at the Gremlin Historic, and it was back into the “new” format of some competition on the Saturday evening followed by a full Sunday rally. Having had a disastrous Saturday in 2024, we didn’t want the same to happen again!

We got there in plenty of time, completed the measured mile, noise and scrutineering and went off to documentation where I plotted the first couple of regularities. There were plenty of speed changes planned, and there were some discussions with others about some of the Sunday navigation where two routes were possible, but we decided we’d finalise that later.

The first regularity was 10 miles and had some grid references with depart directions that said “follow the arrows.” The arrows weren’t actually visible from the road (which we had expected) but I’d marked the map clearly enough and we found the hidden controls. Unfortunately, we were one of several crews who dropped some time into the first control which was on a not as map white around the old Talgarth Hospital. We, as did others, kept going left only to find we were at the entrance to a house. Reversing out, and finding the control, saw us drop 43 seconds. There was a lot of local traffic around so we did quite a bit of reversing in general on that regularity, and we hoped the rest of the event may be a little easier!

Regularity two started quickly and was nearly 20 miles. This regularity went better, but unfortunately a staggered cross roads over a busy A road, with a control very soon afterwards, cost us time whilst we waited for passing traffic. We didn’t understand a couple of ideal times against what we had, but the controls were changed to passage controls due to issues with the timing so that may explain things. So, not quite as bad a start as 2024 but quite a bit of time dropped.

We headed to our accommodation and I carried on with the plotting. A bulletin was issued for Regularity three, where we could go either side of the river, so that clarified the route. Regularity four was over Epynt and included a black spot which didn’t touch the road, but I thought was intended to. I contacted one navigator, who had gone one way, so I asked someone else, who had gone the other. I was fairly confident in my route but made sure to ask the organisers in the morning (my route was correct, the black spot had been intended to touch the road). The navigation also mentioned to “drive through two SPs” but I couldn’t work out what they were, and the ordnance survey map key didn’t help. I decided they had to be Spot Heights (SH).

Regularity three was a busy start, with 36 miles crossing grid lines (and several controls in farmyards) and 11 speed changes. We had a good regularity with our penalties mainly under five seconds, before we had three tests over Epynt. The Scimitar is a powerful car, but we simply can’t keep up with some of the other cars out and were dropping up to 30 seconds a test here.

We had a quick coffee break before Regularity four, half of which I’d plotted and then went to tulips which were handed out at the regularity start. We were third best on this regularity which was good, dropping only 13 seconds (best was 11). Another couple of tests, and then Regularity five which was 26 miles with 13 speed changes. Unfortunately, we missed a turning which was quickly corrected, but there was local traffic and we ended up just under 30 seconds late into a control here.

Another three tests, so more dropping time, and then Regularity six which was over the ranges. The first half had been a herringbone and then there were more tulips passed through the window for the second half. This regularity went around the rifle ranges on some areas we hadn’t used before with some tricky, narrow overgrown sections where we were dropping time against the 30mph requirement. We were equal fifth best here, dropping 1min 04secs.

We had another two tests followed by the final “short” regularity of nearly 14 miles, but 8 speed changes to keep us busy. I was disappointed to drop 19 seconds here, our times had seemed ok and we don’t quite know what went wrong unfortunately.

We finished 5th in class and 12th overall, we’d managed to climb up a few places overnight from 16th, but it could have been better!

Having not been able to make the local 12 Cars recently, Devizes had moved the date of one of their events and it fitted with our availability. We agreed for this event that Gavin would drive Kermit and I would navigate, as it feels a long time since I read a map and the Gremlin Historic is coming up.

I wasn’t feeling great on the day of the rally and spent the afternoon sleeping (I work longer Monday to Thursday so I have Friday afternoons off), and only decided I would give it a go about 20 minutes before we were due to leave, with the viewpoint that it was better to regret trying rather than regretting not giving it a go. It was just over an hour to the start so I dozed a bit and took it easy before the rally started.

We were car 4 and having picked up an amendment for a link section, it wasn’t too long before we started. We were given the first handout as we left the first control and this showed it would take us to TC3 (Time Control 3). The handout said “all roads” (meaning it could use white roads on the map) and I realised we were off to Salisbury Plain. There was only 15 minutes OTL (Over Time Limit) for the first two controls so I knew I needed to plot quickly and make sure we went the right way! We had to stop and plot for a minute, as the navigation for the first two sections was a mixture of spot heights to go via, but also the odd thing (such as a spot height) to avoid. Even with the potti (magnifier), I couldn’t see exactly where the dots plotted for the spot heights and I needed to ensure we went the right way so we pulled up briefly so I could ensure my plotting was accurate.

We did ok in the first section, but by now were truly on the Plain. Kermit is a standard 998cc Micra and so Gavin was picking his way through the potholes and we dropped 6 minutes on this section. Part way through, on the bumps, the potti decided to stop working so I had a rummage around in my nav bag for the two magnifying glasses I carry as backup; I feared it was going to be a long night at this point… We were pleased to not get lost at all because anyone who has been on the Plain knows, there are roads on the map and then there are four times as many roads once you actually get up there! Seeing code boards (so we knew we were going the right way) and trusting my calls was pleasing with all the extra junctions and those on the map not looking the same in reality. We saw one other competitor on a parallel road going in the opposite direction to us and nobody came past us so we thought we were going ok.

The next section was a neutral, before NTC4 – TC5 took us via a series of map features and grid references, around 20 in total to plot. Again we were given the navigation at the control, so it kept me busy getting it down on the map and telling Gavin where to go. We did ok on this section as well, although we were still dropping time. TC5 – TC6 saw a herringbone handed in through the window and I simply couldn’t get the middle part of it to work. I tried working it backwards and then asked Gavin to help and he couldn’t quite get it either, but we had a guess at a route and off we went. We got to the next control and were told the finish (MTC7) had been shortened and we were given a revised finish map reference, and the final piece of navigation (tulips).

By this point I knew we were getting close to OTL, which was 30 minutes from TC3 – MTC7, and so to save time I called the first few junctions without having the whole route on the map, and just using the tulips given. It’s not ideal to do it this way but saves time, which we needed to! However, it did not take me long at all to realise a tulip was missing and I asked Gavin to pull up. I realised which tulip it was, worked out what the correct route was versus the route I actually had plotted, and made the call we would continue as we were, join up with the correct route and hoped we hadn’t missed a code board. We only saw one board in the section (the time card had space for two), but we were relieved to find there was only one board on the correct route.

We finished the event 1st in class and 3rd overall. I’m a novice by the event regulations (the middle class) but I found out at the finish I’d been given the expert navigation throughout by mistake, so that made me feel better about taking some time to do bits of it! We’d found all the code boards so finished on 0F (zero fails) and 27M (27 minutes), which was a pleasing result. We headed home where unfortunately I deteriorated overnight fairly rapidly, with a high fever and other symptoms meaning I needed NHS help and support and spent the majority of the next week in bed and missed many things I had been looking forward to. I’m still not back to 100%, but have returned to work after an unexpected week off and am now trying to get back to full health before the Gremlin.

Having double driven Fly at Debden last September, and us both missing some tests after a steering arm issue, we entered in her again for the March event. This meant it would be my second time driving in her competition, and I was hoping to improve from my previous outing!

The first loop of tests was three tests, two of which were lovely and flowed well and one which just wasn’t quite our cup of tea. Gavin drove first and we were car 10, so when we got to the finish of Test 2 and were told we were the quickest through so far it was pleasing! The reality is, double driving is an advantage (as you see each test twice, once as a driver and once as a navigator) and we expected that “quickest time” to change once second drivers went through (we ended up 19th fastest, as a ten second cone penalty was added, dropping us from 3rd fastest). My first couple of tests went well and the lack of power steering didn’t feel as unfamiliar as last time, with just one small reverse on Test 3 after a boot full of throttle resulted in understeer and I wasn’t quick enough on the handbrake. We sat 7th (Gavin driving) and 39th (me driving) after the first loop.

For the second loop of tests, I drove first (done to try and negate the second driver advantage). The tests were similar, but with some different aspects, and I had the same understeer issue at the same place! Gavin was absolutely on it, and bar finding another car at a merge on Test 5 (they were on their first lap and we were on our second) it went well. Unfortunately we were behind them for a while, including two passage checks (marshals signing our timecard) so we caught them after the merge, sat behind as the nature of the test meant the only way of getting past was if they moved offline, waited for their passage check to be completed (and watched the seconds drift away!), then got our timecard signed… then we caught them again, not able to get past, waited for their passage check, waited for ours…then caught them again, before going different ways at the split. As we were on our second lap we went different ways at the split, but it did rather spoil our flow and time on that test costing around 15 seconds (we counted whilst stationary and awaiting our turn in the PCs – the marshals did it as quick as they could). Gavin went the third quickest time of everyone on Test 6, so maybe the frustration helped! We both moved up one place overall after this loop.

Timecard/loop 3 with three tests, and I was driving first again. This time the tests were reversed and had more changes, including lots of “bus stops,” which is where I found the lack of power steering harder work going lock to lock in first gear. I used Fly’s RWD to steer where possible, but I’m not as used to her as Gavin is given it was my second event driving her and he bought her in 1991. I did manage to set my best overall test time of 28th fastest on Test 9, which was my favourite test/area of the day as I felt the test flowed well as it was more open/second gear corners, particularly in the second half. Gavin set his best overall test time of 2nd fastest on Test 8, just one second slower than the quickest car. By the end of this timecard, Gavin moved up to 5th overall and I was 34th.

On to the final loop and timecard, with two tests and Gavin to drive first. We knew it was tight between him and Adrian White, but Adrian had been clean all day (no penalties) and we had picked up 30 seconds of cone penalties (3 x 10 seconds). We had known about hitting one cone but not two others, so we were a little apprehensive. We went into the last two tests 9 seconds behind Adrian, and didn’t know it at the time, but set the exact same time as him on Test 10 (joint 3rd fastest). The last test was two of the earlier tests joined up, and Gavin was on it the whole way round, and we were 9 seconds fastest than Adrian, which initially put us 4th overall on identical overall times (us ahead as we’d set a faster time on Test 1). Unfortunately, we were given a wrong side of cone/gate penalty which was a 20 second penalty, something we didn’t know we’d done wrong at the time, which meant we finished 5th overall exactly 20 seconds behind Adrian, but comfortably ahead of 6th.

Then it was my turn, and I did ok on the shorter test before heading into the long one. It was all going so well until a few corners from the finish, where I was a bit heavy with my right foot and spun Fly. I tried to get the clutch down whilst spinning quickly but didn’t quite make it and stalled her, so after a quick restart we were off again. It cost me some time, and I picked up a ten second cone penalty (my second penalty of the day). Normally I know when I hit cones, so I can only presume I clipped a base or something somewhere in the test as I had no idea! I finished the day 36th overall.

It was really good to be driving Fly again, and with Gavin driving her too with me navigating, I get to see what she is capable of; my limitations are most certainly my driving, and not Fly. I was getting quicker and more confident in her and getting more and more comfortable using her rear wheel drive to steer, not something I’m used to having a front wheel drive rally car with Muriel. Andy Manston got a great photo of me coming out of a hairpin sideways with a big grin on my face.

We were both pleased with our results of 5th and 36th overall (72 starters), and to finish and complete all the tests after a challenging event in September at the same venue. The only thing that would really make things easier would be if Debden was closer to home. At around 170 miles, we didn’t get home until 21:45 which makes for a long day (especially with work on a Monday!).

Photos by M&H Photography