First Press Release for the NI Night Rally Challenge

2012 ANICC Northern Ireland Night Rally Challenge

Have you ever wanted to compete in motorsport but thought the cost meant it was out of reach?

Well 2012 could be your chance to get involved in a great low cost motorsport. You could follow in the footsteps of Northern Ireland’s two top WRC competitors, Kris Meeke and Chris Patterson, and compete in Navigation Rallying.

Just like in the WRC, navigation rallying needs a crew of two people to compete against the clock, but unlike the WRC, navigation rallying doesn’t require a special vehicle or expensive safety gear. A completely standard car will allow you to compete, even at the highest level.

To ease new competitors into the sport there will be a series of 7 dedicated beginner events throughout the year to help them learn the navigation and timing skills necessary to go on and win rallies. Each event will be competitive and together they will make up the “Northern Ireland Night Rally Challenge”.

The first event in the calendar will be an introduction to Navigation Rallying and will include some training on what is required to start competing on events. The rest of the rallies will start each evening with a short training session on some more aspects of the sport, followed by an event out on the road. Each event in the year will get progressively longer, so that by the year’s end, crews will have reached the level and experience required to compete in a full navigation rally. Details of each event will be posted up online so if you can’t make an event you will be able to catch up on what you missed before the next one.

So why not make 2012 the year you take the first step to getting involved and join some like minded people to enjoy this low cost motorsports. Your weekends will never be the same again!

The Northern Ireland Night Rally Challenge rounds will be on:

10 February – Queen’s MC (No driving will be involved)

2 March – Newry & District MC

30 March – Cookstown MC

15 September – Dungannon MC

13 October – Rathfriland MC

26 October – Omagh MC

17 November – Ulster Automobile Club

These dates and more information will be posted on the ANICC website.

Please also take a minute to join the Facebook group.

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ANICC Navigation Rally Committee

I've been going to the ANICC meeting for a few years now to represent QUBMC. As Queen's only run a few events I don't need to do much so it hasn't been that taxing, but that has all changed now as I was voted onto the navigation rally committee for 2012.

This is going to be a big year for navigation rallying. Due to the low entries that events have been getting we are going to try and encourage new competitors to come out and get started in motorsport by running a series of beginner events rather than the normal championship.

I think the two main problems with navigation rallying are that most people have never heard of it, and those who have are being thrown straight in at the deep end where there is just too much to get your head round. Hopefully we will be able to address both of those issues this year. We will be trying to kick up a bit of interest on the internet and in local motosport magazines with some press releases, and we will be attending stage rallies and car shows to hand out flyer and talk to people. As well as that before each of the seven beginner events we will be holding a rally school to go through all aspects of nav' rallying. Competitors will then go out on the roads to put into practice what has just been leaned, and when they finish there will be a debrief to run through the instructions so people can learn from any mistakes.

Navigation rallying is too important to let disappear so we need to put up a fight to try and save it. There are a lot of current competitors and organisers who cut their teeth in nav' rallying so if nav' rallying isn't there at the grass roots it could spell trouble for all motorsport in NI further down the line.

I just hope that I can get across to people how much I enjoy nav' rallying and encourage them to have a go themselves.

ANICC Prize Giving 2011

Saturday just past was the annual ANICC prize giving dinner. As Rachel and I had come 2nd in our class in the 2011 nav' rally championship we were there to collect our trophies. But not only did we get our trophies, we also got a free dinner, happy days, there isn't much I like more than a free feed. It was a good nights craic, the food was good, I got a few pints and I had a bit of banter with Neil and Andy.

Although Davy and Clive beat us in the championship by a single point I feel pretty good about how the year went. We won more events than anyone else and we had 3 wins from 4 starts, that's a good record in anyone book.

There will be no nav' rally championship in 2012 as we are running a beginners challenge to hopefully bring some new faces into the sport. I'm quite heavily involved in organising the challenge so I'll have more details about it later.

2011 Championship Points

New Years Stages 2012

I attended my first event of the year on Saturday, the New Years Stages at Kirkistown racetrack. The New Years Stages is the traditional shake down for the start of the year and this year was no exception with a great turn out of top cars. It has been a few years since we have seen any interesting new cars so the fact that both Dereck McGeehan and Dereck McGarrity were debuting their new machines, which are the first of each model in the country, was a bit too special to miss.

I was most interested to see McGeehans MINI WRC as it's the car Eugene Donnelly will be driving in this years ITC. I've been a big fan of Eugenes since his giant killing performances in the Corolla WRC and I'd put money on him winning the championship again this year. The MINI looked great sitting still but it was very clear from watching it on the stages that it was only out for a test, it just wasn't a totally committed drive.

In contrast McGarrity's S14 Impreza looked brilliant on the stages. I didn't get a good look round it as it was parked in the garage everytime I sent up to service but what I did see I was impressed with.

Galway International Rally is only 1 day this year but after seeing the MINI and the S14 at Kirkistown I could be very easily be talking in to making the drive down.

Bishopscourt Stages 2011

It has taken me a long time to get these videos sorted out but I finally got them edited and uploaded. This is my good friends Robert Erwin and Neil Ervine at the Bishopscourt Stages Rally in March 2011. Robert's rally car is a 1600cc 20v Toyota Corolla AE86 and it goes very well. He thinks the videos look slow but they look plenty quick to me.

Stage 4:

Stage 5:


Stage 6:

New Year 2012

Well it's a new year so some house keeping needed to be taken care of.

First job was to tax the Nova and the second was to renewed my competition licence. I can't remember why I changed from a "Non-Race Clubman" to getting a "Non-Race Nation B" last year but I must have had good reason so I got the same one again this time. The price has gone up by just over 5% which I suppose is similar to inflation but I think the MSA should have keep the price of the low level licences the same as last year.

As it's January, the Dakar Rally has been on TV, and it's just as spectacular as ever, it really is one of my favourite events of the year to watch. The amount of energy that it takes to compete in any of the categories must be immense, the people are super human. I really don't know how the bikers bodies stand up to the abuse of hundreds of miles across country, they are amazing.

I missed a couple of Lanes Rallies at the end of 2011. I was away on holiday for the Magherafelt "Tintmaster Navigation Lanes Rally" but from what I've heard I was lucky to miss it. Apparently there was a lot of time delays and the tests weren't good enough to make up for that. The results look a bit funny to me too but that's a different issue. A lanes rally is a new thing for most clubs so it's understandable that the first one will have some issue, hopefully the event will be better next year when I'm sure I'll be taking part. I also missed the UAC's "It's Not the Boxing Day Rally" but that one was through choice. I felt that the entry fee was far too high so voted with my feet and didn't take part. The entry was £75, plus lets call it £20 for insurance, plus £15 each to join the UAC. That's £125 before I even put fuel in the car. It's too much for a lanes rally. I did hear very good things about the event so maybe the extra cost was worth it.

It could be a very busy year for me as I've been voted onto the ANICC Navigation Rally committee for 2012. With the poor turn out at navigation rallies in 2011 it has been decided to run an alternative Championship on 2012 with the emphasis on bringing in new competitors. There will be a lot more promotional work to do so hopefully it will be time well spent and we get to have a bumper championship in 2013.


Costs:
MSA Competition Licence, £41
Nova Road Tax, 12 months, £215

Magherafelt Lanes Rally Results
It's Not the Boxing Day Rally results