Navigational Rallying
Navigation rallies take place on public roads in more or less standard cars, usually in the hours of darkness. Navigational rallies are often referred to as "road rallies", but strictly speaking there are some differences in the rules, and true road rallies are extinct in Scotland, though still flourishing in Wales.
Navigation rallies are legally restricted to an average speed of 30 mph. The object is to follow the correct route while maintaining this average speed, no faster, no slower. The "30 average" may not sound very fast, but that includes the time spent stationary working out the route on the map; maintaining the required average speed in practice requires some enthusiastic driving.
Being the fastest on the road is not the way to win a road rally. The score is kept in terms of penalty points; you get a small penalty for being late at a time control (checkpoint), and larger penalties for being early, for missing out part of the route, for arriving at a checkpoint in the wrong direction, or for missing a checkpoint entirely.
The winners are the crew who follow the correct route, and arrive at each control on time; the navigation is at least as important as the driving.
Scottish Navigational Rally Championship 2018
This year’s
championship started with the GMSC Aquarius Rally on 27/28 January. With 19
entries this was an improvement from last year. This year the rally moved from its
previous base in Kinross to a start venue in Cupar and a finish venue at
McDonalds in Glenrothes. Whilst the
former seemed to work OK I’m not so sure about McDonalds, which I do not think
was the organiser’s first choice! This
may have had something to do with the results not being declared on the night,
but the following Monday instead, then allowing a week for any protests, of
which there were none.
The event winners
(& top Experts) were Dave MacKintosh / Duncan Cameron in the Fiesta,
narrowly beating top Novice crew of Craig Wallace / Niall Thomson in their
Toyota. Third place and top Non-Experts
were Gary & Alan Ross in their Citroen.
The next round of the
Championship will be the SDMC Gropers Rally running on 17th March. As I write this entries are also up from last
year with 16 confirmed and another 2 drivers who want to enter but are
struggling to find navigators.
Saltire Classic Targa Rally- Unfortunately the lead up period of w/c 26th February
was when the so called ‘Beast from the East’ hit Scotland and with deep snow
drifting over the roads in the area making it highly unlikely that access to
the tests would be possible. The
organising committee made the correct decision to postpone the event in time
for travelling competitors to cancel accommodation booked etc. The good news is that the event had a full
entry and I suspect will still have a full entry at the re-scheduled date of 18th
November.
Dave
MacKintosh (Co-ordinator for Road Events)
Seafield Rally -
63 Car Club played host to the Scottish Navigational Championship with the Seafield Rally. The 94 mile event started from Cairnie Hall near Huntly. What followed a dry day was a period of rain that lasted the whole event leading to slippy conditions.
The winning crew emerged to be Charles Stewart/Michael Hendry with 1 penalty in their borrowed Ford Fiesta ST. Craig Wallace/Niall Thomson were second on 5 penalties. Third overall and first Clubman Crew was Andrew Little/Daniel Forsyth with Dave Mackintosh/Duncan Cameron one penalty adrift.
Alan Patterson/Finlay Leask were the sole non-Expert entrant, finishing on a respectable 73 Penalties on their first year in the class.
With three Novice crews it was set for a fierce battle. Steven Rochford/Kate Proctor dropped only one minute but a missed code saw them finish with 16. Sam and Andrew Hunter were close behind on 25 with Kevin Massie/Aaron Smilie in third.
Thank you to all entries who travelled near and far to support the event.
Thanks to Kealla Law for soup/sandwiches. Richard Spark & Yvonne Donald for Scrutineering and Michael & Dianne Law for course car.It was great to have a good number of marshals and thanks to them all for coming out on the event.
Results and Full sets of navigation have been uploaded and can be viewed on the club website 63carclub.com/event/seafield-rally-2
Oktoberfast Rally 29 September 2018 - Regulations for the Oktoberfast are available in the downloads section below.The start and finish will be in Dunkeld, with 120 miles of the best lanes on maps 53 and 58 and a small section of 57 which will be provided by the organisers.
Separate instructions will be provided for each class - Expert, Non-Expert and Novice.
All route instructions will be very straightforward.
Hairst Rally 27 October 2018 - The SDMC Hairst Rally 2018 took place on Saturday 27th October starting and finishing at the Scout Centre in Methlick. A total of eleven crews contested the rally, eight in the National 'B' SAMSC Navigational Championship event and three in the Clubmans.
After a very blustery and wet day, in the evening the weather gods were kind to us and the wind dropped, the moon came out to watch and there were only occasional light showers, much to the relief of the marshals!
The event was won by Michael Cruickshank/Richard Crozier, in their Suzuki Ignis, who cleaned the event, followed closely by Harry Merry/Graham Causer and Charlie Brown/Gordon Reid.
Gary and Alan Ross were the only Non-Expert crew and finished with a creditable 54 points. The Novice section was won by Andrew and Sam Hunter with only 4 points.
Full results are attached or can be accessed on the club website.
A total of 21 Marshals and Officials signed on the night, most having to man two controls, all carried out with good humour. Our grateful thanks to all the volunteers who turned out to make the event possible.
The post event refreshments were provided by the Methlick Scout Group and was much appreciated by everyone, our thanks to the Scout Group and Dawn, Lisa and Claire in particular.
Gerry Potter
Clerk of the Course
Championship Regulations and Event Regulations and latest Positions are available in the Downloads section at the foot of this page.
The Scottish Association's road events coordinator is
David MacKintosh
Phone - 01224 784780
Mobile - 07715 177296
Email - dave@newtonhillhr.co.uk
The Championship Rallies
Navigational Rally Downloads
Previous Years Navigational Rallies
Navi Rally 2017Navi Rally 2016Navi Rally 2015Navi Rally 2014Navi Rally 2013Navi Rally 2012Navi Rally 2011Navi Rally 2010