What a weekend! Ken Watson and myself were out on Saturday marshalling on the Northumbrian Border Rally organised by Niall Cook and his aides from the Mini Cooper Register.
- Apr 2
- 2 min read
This rally is for Minis only ( won’t even accept my Riley Elf). 17 minis lined up at the Park Head hotel in Coundon for an afternoon of tests.
These were at Brasside & Follingsby, Ken & I ran tests 4 & 8.
After a halt for tea at Durham Rowing club, the crews took part in a 90 mile navigational event. We marshaled STC3 & 14, the event finished back at Coundon, where a meal was provided as the results were calculated.
Graham Cornthwaite/Ali Procter won the event (again).
Ken and I then departed to the Travelodge at Scotch Corner for 4 hours kip before signing on for the Swift Signs & Shirts Yorkshire Dales Rally, at 6:00. Were we to do the stop line at the finish of SS1 & 5. The weather was nice but cool. We arrived at our location at the finish of SS1, got our selves set up to await the officials car coming through, at 8:00 am it started raining! The first car arrived at 8:45, the rain getting worse and getting rather windy. The wind blew over the timing beams so the flying finish marshal had to resort the manual. Our display also blew over. Our time schedule showed the timekeeper Richard Blackshaw was due to come through between SS1 & 4, but the schedule had been changed. I rang Richard and he was able to get through before SS5 started and fix the beams.
The rain was now horizontal! I told Ken to stay in the car with the check sheets as I was already a bit damp, he did not need to get wet also, I stayed out doing the time cards and resetting the timing display after each car. The gust of wind got stronger so much so on a couple of occasions I nearly got blown over!
Around 14:15 the last car came through and we were able to depart our location around 2:30. My Goretex jacket was completely soaked through!
As we drove through the Yorkshire Dales back through Richmond, the sun came out, just about 6 hours too late!
It certainly was a busy weekend, thanks to my Chaufeur Ken for driving me around.
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