Not the Boxing Day Rally 2010 +33 days

Well that was unexpected. It all came together at the last minute but I found myself navigating on last Saturdays "Not the Boxing Day" rally. I hadn't intended doing any navigating this year but as it's been a while since I've been out on an event I took the opportunity to guide Denis Bell round. Denis is a gentleman driver and as he delighted in telling me he is now in his 7th decade of competitive motorsport. He had managed to borrow his wife's car for the day and as it had to be returned at 6pm to do the shopping run we weren't going to be setting the stages alight.

The event itself is of a format that has become quite popular in NI over the last few years and involves using private lanes and yards for timed tests. Some are like mini rally stages and others are like open autotests. There is no restriction on cars or licences so its open to everyone and I can see more events like it springing up and being very popular in future.

Denis and I had a great day. We didn't make any mistakes, didn't do any damage and got on well in the car. Denis has plenty of stories about rallying in the old days and from his time selling Toyota's he has been lucky enough to meet a good few of the driving legends that I will only ever get to see on video. It was really interesting to get the chance to talk to someone from a different generation who has the same interests as I do.

Our "rally" car for the day:

Queuing for Test 2:

Start line of Test 2:

Interesting double car transporter: