Marshals required - Scottish Rally 26 & 27/6

[vaux_2]

I've got the Friday booked off work and now desperately trying to get my lift finished in time! If all goes according to plan I'll be down for the stage setup on Friday, otherwise it may just be the saturday

[vaux_2]

I'm afraid it doesn't look like i'm gong to be able to make it to help out this weekend, sorry Jools. Not going to be able to get the final bits for my brakes and camber problem till friday and then i need to get it all sorted and back on the road as i'm currently carless for work. Having to rely on getting lifts at the mo which sucks! I''m supposed to be down in Kilmarnock for the Saturday night for a wedding anniversary bash so i may be able to pop along in the afternoon to say hello and catch the end of the rally.

[Jools]

[vaux_2]

Yeah, was looking forward to it too

Looks like i'm spending my day off tomorrow running around getting bits and hoping everything gets sorted out first time around, or that it doesn't take me long on the sat morning so i can get down in time to catch the end of the rally. If i make it down in time where will i find you guys?

And thinking i will be ordering a bodylift kit next week too

[Trugga]

What an excellent couple of days that was...

Left the Midlands at around 09:30 and headed north up the M6

At 11:18 I get a phone call off Jools checking I'm en route - cabin noise is not great on the PDA's speaker at 70mph so pull into the next service station (Lancaster) to return the call. Take the opportunity at the services for a comfort break, burger and a coffee and have the great idea to by a blue tooth headset for the phone from the mobile shop (Once the device had charged I never had a phone signal until my return trip )

Arrive at Twiglees Forest a few minutes before 14:00 as requested and socialised over a coffee with Jools, Ian and James. It looked like the four of us, plus the too lads (Rob and I forget ) would be the set up team. Having sorted out the stage furniture (arrows, hazard tape, boards and stakes) we set off staple gun and mallet in hand (once some stakes had been re-pointed with a machete and/or bow saw).

The gravel forest stage was in excellent condition, having almost a concrete sub surface - probably required due to the weight of the logging vehicles they use here. Shortly after the 9 mile forest drive, we found a suitable camping spot and set up camp before preparing our evening banquet (and a banquet it was)

View from the camp site:


The lads assembling the BBQ:


Trugga Towers:


Evening banquet:


The Morrison's disposable BBQ was declared the winner although Tesco's came a close second (yeh, right) - the Asda one managed to keep the food warm

Alarms at 07:00 saw the BBQ's on the go again for breakfast (another banquet), with Jools setting off for a run through the stage to see if everything was still in position whilst the rest of us cleared up. Once the camp-site was void of any of our over night residence, we joined Jools at the start in preparation to meet and greet the remainder of the volunteer marshals.

The equipment van delivered a few extra stakes that we were short of and I took them with me on my way to the end of the stage - stopping off at junction 12 to erect them (4 stakes, 4 arrows and a "narrows" sign). Arriving at the flying finish I wait with the novice marshal for the time keeper to bring the rally timing gear. After a little instruction in the flying finishes role (stopping the clock as the competitor flies past at full competition speed, noting the time and then radioing that time through to the stop line), I drive down to the stop line.

At the stop line we have an experienced radio crew, but again a novice marshal and son who have not done stop line before. My role is to be Jool's deputy, Located at the finish next to a radio car I will have a full understanding on how the stage is progressing. If there would be a major incident, Jools would have to leave the start and attend the incident and manage proceedings - I would then have to relocate to the start and deputise in his place until all was cleared (thankfully there were no mayor incidents.

I organised our stop line novice marshals and instructed them in the task that lay ahead. The lad would hold the radio and receive the times from the stop line. I would right the time down speaking out out aloud as I did so. The lad would then radio back what I said as confirmation (any misheard errors could then be quickly corrected). Dad would overhear the times (from the radio, from me and from the lad) and write them down on his own check sheet and then write them on each competitors time card.

As the event proceeded, we often had two or three competitors on the stop line awaiting times, and our method worked really well as I was able to feed times I already had recorded to dad as he finished with one competitor and moved onto the next.

Our location afforded us a view across the valley of the competitors at full chat with their sound echoing back off the tree line. During the afternoon, a competitor drove along slowly and parked up at the side of the stage across the valley. The driver then got out and after waving his arms, proceeded to walk over to us (perhaps half a mile, including a stream) - he wanted the stage stopped as he was parked in what he deemed to be a dangerous place and was worried that another competitor might hit his car (a Mitsubishi Evo)

There were some lengthy discussions over the radio regarding stopping the stage (which I won't go into here), but we could all see other competitors passing his stricken car without any discernible reduction in speed - there were only 30 or so competitors still to run, so the car was left as was.









Once the last car had come through, I thanked the now experienced novice stop line crew and radio crew and made my way back to the start for another social, before heading off into the stage to break down all the junctions.

Along our way, we came upon a small traffic jam - the road blocked due to the recovery of car 1...

Traffic jam:


Nice 101:


No 1's recovery:













Once all was safely recovered, Jools and I made our way to a small quarry along the stage for a photo op (it would have rude not to )



Amazing rock striation.







Oh. and you don't need a 4x4 to marshal on forest rallies:





It was probably 17:30 when I left the forest complex and made my way home. Having stopped once for fuel and coffee I made the final 3½ hour stint in one hit, thanks in part to the contents of the goody bag kindly donated by Jools. Unfortunately, my car is now clean having experienced the thunderstorm and associated torrential rain just north of Stoke.

I arrived home around 21:30, showered, snacked on Scottish biscuits and coffee before retiring to bed. The midge bite tallies to about 8

A cracking weekend in great company.

Cheers Jools

Lawrence

[Jools]

Great write-up Lawrence

I won't try to out-do you. It was a very good couple of days - good company, lots of food, some beer, rally cars and off-road driving. The stage went reasonably smoothly with only one *ehem* grumpy customer .

Really good to see you again. Put this weekend in the diary for next year!

Cheers
Jools

[vaux_2]

Looks like it was a great weekend, the weather looked alright too! I ended up having to get a lift down from a mate so didn't get down till about 4pm on the saturday. On the plus side, found drumclog on the way down the road, turns out its not far from my mates in Darvel.