Back in it’s usual February timeslot 2007’s running of the Nuit Blanche navigational rally was the first round of the East of Scotland and Scottish Navigational Rally championships. Moved due to date clashes last year, the event promised to be again as unpredictable weather wise as a Scottish February can be and with potentially fiendish route clues as the collective academic minds of Edinburgh University could muster.

It was therefore a daunting prospect for the crew of Car No. 5, Hawick & Border Car Club and Lothian & Borders Motor Sport Club members, Robbie Tyrie (driver) and Jason Ferry (navigator). Daunting on a number of points:

	Robbie and I had never competed together before
	Robbie had just purchased a new toy to do the event; a splendid looking Peugeot 106 Rallye (with registration R40LYE to further look the part) and still was learning of the capabilities of his French machine.
	My last outing some 10-12 months before had ended up in a river in Lanarkshire and so was the brain still up to the test?
	I was recovering from a mild form of food poisoning and had never been more than a few minutes away from WC conveniences for over a week.

Early excuses maybe, but why make things easy for yourself?

But, with scrutineering completed, and Robbie finding out a few more intracasies of Peugeot lighting, we were ready for signing on, albeit without MSA licences due to the 2007 ‘licencegate’ fiasco. Leslie took kindly to us and we were signed on and ready to go.

The start this year was moved from the normal Raceland setting to the world within a world campus of Heriot Watt University. It was clear from the map that limited navigation could be found to the west of Edinburgh on sheet 66 and so a close by loop was spotted and a transport section along the bypass was anticipated.

The final instructions confirmed this and so the first two sections were an easy run out to near the Lothianburn junction, off the A720 city bypass.

Section 3 prompted the taste of things to come. When looking at the map Jason did not see how a string of seven 6-figure map references could plot into a 10 mile route. It was a simple clue but the navigator failed to spot one loop that made the string of information fit together. A couple of wasted minutes spent sat at the side of the A702 solving the clue had put them onto the back foot and then hunting for a slot (turn) right saw them dropping three minutes. A silly drop of time really, but the extra time spent in ensuring the correct navigation is sometimes the difference when it comes to results.

From memory, I think Section 5 took another 3 minute chunk out of our time when a clue on leaving grid squares, with no end TC point given, took a while to plot. Robbie was warming already though to his Gallic machine, although his arms were starting to feel the strain of no power steering and so any time taken to solve clues was duly made up by the pilot.

We arrived at the re-group at TC7 pretty sure therefore that no codes had been missed but we were 6 minutes down on time. A quick check with our class rivals indicated they had dropped just one minute but we were still in the hunt, well, for the next 10 minutes or so until we got going again. Robbie performed a stunning service to the nearby crews, likened to the car washers that pounce on your car, washing windscreens as you cue on London’s North circular. With headlights washed we regrouped and got back in the groove for the off.

The second half of the rally, made it a game of two halves, the ying and yang of our rally, the night to our previous relatively sunny day. We quickly bounced out of our groove.

The next clue promised us to leave junctions on compass directions in order. Simple, but no, as it was also to read right to left and apparently the exact opposite of what was written i.e. WSW should read ENE. Apparently in the clue there is enough information to tell you this, I still can’t see where though and I still haven’t taken the time to plot it correctly. Maybe the fiend who wrote the clue spends hours playing records in reverse hoping to hear messages!

I did hear later that the clue didn’t work, and the section was scrubbed, but it sealed our fate for the second half, when you’re on a roll things just seem to fall into place but when things start to go bad the brain starts to struggle. We ended up taking an informed decision (read guess!) where the route was and we ended up slowly traversing the countryside looking for a car parked with flashing hazard lights with a reflectively-attired person ready to sign our time card. We did find such a thing, and luckily it was the one we should have been going to, but our guess of the route and subsequent searching had dropped us time and codes.

We were still in the rally though and were hopeful of a nice easy clue to perk up the confidence, but no, we fell foul of the academic ones again, strings of un-spaced coloured junctions, coded route instructions and non-directional tulip diagrams meant that we struggled for the remainder. Many calls of “bloody students” were heard within the car from both sides, not being bitter, but just wishing that we had paid more attention at school!

We got to the finish, recorded a time but were unsure of how unkind the second half had been for all crews. We guessed a score of 65ish but I think our final was reduced to 73 after sections were scrubbed. We were second in class (out of 2) but more importantly 2nd in both Championships. The only way is up, you don’t want to peak too early!

We did a smash and grab of the buffet and made our excuses to leave, well it was past 1am and I had to get up for the Saltire the next day (that’s my excuse anyhow).
We were gracious in defeat and had a good blast around map 66. Robbie learning quickly how to manouvre a non-ABS, power steering vehicle around the lanes and me remembering that navigating can be hard work.

All in all though, good fun, the car was superb, we didn’t end up in a river and the internal workings of the navigator held out.

Robbie’s off to do the Gropers Rally (Saturday 10th March) with his more regular Navigator, Davy Reynolds (also Lothian & Borders MSC and Hawick & Border CC member) up in Stonehaven so good luck for that guys.

I will be taking a few months off to concentrate on a marriage and honeymoon but will be back for more of the same soon.
 

Updated 15 March 2007
Webmaster - Jim Paterson