Life In the Fast Lane - Jon Knighton heads out with the Forces Rally
Team
27th
& 28th February 2009
Over the Past ten years BFBS
Sport has been following the exploits of the Armed forces Rally
team, which has included events in Iceland and over the past two
seasons the most prestigious event on the calendar, Rally Wales
GB. The team is made up of personnel from all three services and
requires dedicated mechanics and co drivers as well as drivers.
The White military Land Rovers
carry quite a following from Rally enthusiasts up and down the country
. The Sun seeker event around the New Forest attracted thousands
of spectators, all hoping to see the thrills and spills of competitive
rallying.
But what's it actually like
to compete? I was given the chance to find out first hand, co driving
for Major Alan Paramore, who for more than 20 years has taken young
servicemen and women into the team. He's also one of Britain's
most experienced rally drivers.
Anyone who thinks co-driving
is simply a case of sitting in the front enjoying the ride, should
think again! Since receiving the invite a few weeks ago, the race
has been on to get myself properly prepared.
The checklist included learning
about pace notes, which are given out in advance, a list of instructions
for each special stage which tell you which hazard is approaching,
the road book, which is a guide for every mile of the rally, both
the stages and the service book, which tells you the lay out of
the service centre, emergency service halts and the start/finish
places for the rally.
To get more of an insight
into the role of the co-driver, I visited Cpl James 'Homer' Dempsey
at Wattisham. He is one of the most experienced co-drivers in the
Armed Forces team and who guided me through the basics, including
looking after the timings.
As he explained, in theory
it isn't the driver who's in control at all, he or she does as he's
told, by the co-driver! After all, give an incorrect timing into
a stage and you lose valuable time penalties, take a wrong turning
and it could be catastrophic.!
The team was based in Poole,
near the rally's Bournemouth headquarters and on my arrival on Friday
morning, it was time to try on the suit and helmet I'd been loaned
and to help the service team prepare the Land Rover which had been
brought down from Scotland. In all there were five Land Rovers and
a Peugeot 205 Gti, the prize for Homer and Ewan Christie, who were
the overall forces team champions in 2008.
The other entries were team
Manager Steve Partridge and Ross Cookman, also in his first rally,
George Morrison and Curtis McKerlie, Duncan Lilwall and Craig Teasdale
and Paul Wright and Tom Aldridge, based with Army and RAF units
all over the UK and BFG. In addition more than 20 other servicemen
and women, led by SSgt Rob Usher joined the service crew to look
after the vehicles. In a ceremony before the event all the new team
members were handed their badges for the current season.
Before the first mile is
completed the race is on to get the vehicles through scrutineering.
This involves countless checks and also fitting those all important
stickers demanded by the sponsors.
Any failures by the scrutineers
would have meant additional problems for the service crews, but
there are no dramas.
Although the business end
of the Rally begins on Saturday morning, my first introduction to
Sunseeker 2009 is a 1.6 mile special night road stage on Bournemouth
Sea front in front of 2000 spectators.
For this stage the cars
are starting in reverse order, which means Paul and Tom are first
off, followed by Duncan and Craig , George and Curtis, then Steve
and Ross.
We are followed by Ewan and
Homer who are in the main part of the rally, leaving us to battle
out our own championship.
Our aim is to be a second
or two quicker than Duncan, and it goes far better than we hoped,
a time of 2.00.02 a five second advantage over the next placed Wolf.
Sadly an accident on the second run, for one of the powerful Subaru
cars ,means the rest of the rest of the stage is cancelled.
On Saturday morning we have
perfect weather and make good progress on the first stage of the
day, the Silverstone Rally School, bettering the next placed Land
Rover by 17.
This continues for us in
to SS4, Hoare Banks 1 over 5.29 miles, which we cover in 5 minutes
35. It takes me these first couple of stages to really get to grips
with the pace notes, trying to read ahead the future hazards while
Alan is negotiating the more immediate problems ! The hardest part
of co-driving is relaying instructions ahead, but not too far ahead,
otherwise a left turn, can be interpreted as a right turn! It is
also easy to lose your place on the notes.
We're in amongst some pretty
impressive and expensive rally cars, Subaru Imprezzas driven by
Will Nichols and Roger Duckworth will eventually claim the two top
spots with a smattering of Mitsubishis also dominating, but the
spectators love the classic Rally cars like Ford Escorts, Peugeots
and the classic Metro 6r4, celebrating its 25 th birthday here.
Special Stage 5 , hardware
South is one of the longest in the entire rally at 10. 62 miles
all on gravel. It is here where one of our main challengers Duncan
Lilwall is forced to retire with a mechanical problem. As we head
into SS6, we're already building up a healthy lead, which by the
time we return to service will be 31 seconds over our nearest rivals
Paul Wright and Tom Aldridge.
Although the event is dominated
by highly powerful and highly expensive Mitsubishi, Subaru and Ford
rally cars the spectators love the Forces Land Rovers and the classic
cars entered, which range from Ford Escorts, and Saabs, to the Metro
6R4 celebrating its 25th anniversary.
After six of the 13 stages,
Alan Paramore and myself are well placed in the military Challenge.
Special stage 7 at Gore Heath
is one of the shortest, just over 2 miles, but with a host of spectacular
right and left combinations.
We keep up the pressure on
the other three land Rover crews with a time of 3.14, and that continues
into the 6. 6 mile SS 8, which we complete in 5 . 18.
The reliability of the Land
Rover comes into its own and we quickly move onto special stage
9 , which unfortunately is to claim Paul Wright and Tom Aldridge
who'd be going so well, they roll their Land Rover, no damage apart
from some pride.
It leaves three Land Rovers
left going into the short Special stage 10, at Bere wood and we
get a great start and a time of 2.22.
The last stage before second
service is 5.4 miles Turbo Dynamics, which we've visited before,
only this time in reverse, and Alan achieves a time that's faster
than half a dozen Rally cars 6.49 and amazing performance for a
110 HP diesel Land Rover!
Sadly the final two special
stages have to be cancelled after a spectator in the forest suffers
a heart attack and is treated on site before being removed to hospital.
It means we've completed
the rally in a class winning time of 52 minutes 40, which is 4 and
half minutes quicker than Steve Partridge and Ross Cookman and 13
minutes quicker than George Morrison and Chris McKerlie in the third
Land Rover.
Ewan Chrtistie and Homer
Dempsey also do really well in their Peugeot, finishing in overall
47th place in the event.
The people of Bournemouth
turn out in big numbers for the victory arrival in the town centre.
For all of us who have finished
its a great feeling and for the team responsible for keeping the
Land Rovers in the rally.
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