Skoda Rally Blog

This evening was the ceremonial start for Rallye Sunseeker 2011, which has replaced the traditional Friday night stages in Bournemouth Gardens since last year; obviously I didn’t get to it last year as I was out of action, but this year was my first experience of it. On the face of it, it’s a chance for the public to get close to rally cars that will be competing tomorrow, and also for sponsors to be seen by a wider section of the public – there are lots of people who are interested but won’t be able to spend the day in a forest watching cars, and this was evident tonight.

We arrived a bit before our due time and queued up, with Gary Hayter appearing just behind us; his terratrip had broken so it was handy for us to be able to tell him which iPhone app would do the trick instead! We had a chat with the others in our class – the Becketts in the Skoda Favorit and Richard and Andrew in the 1275GT Mini, and had a good laugh. The mood down at the Quay reminded me of the queue on the barrage for Rally GB’s saturday evening stage – everyone was chatty and there was an air of excitement. The crowds were HUGE – I really wasn’t expecting anywhere near as many people to be down there; when we arrived it was difficult to move in some parts of the quay, and this lasted the entire time; there seemed to be a fair wait and it did look as if we would be waiting around a lot longer than our original due time, but once the cars got moving it went smoothly; even though we were last but one over the ramp (we would have been last but it looked like car 70’s driver had gone AWOL and they appeared when there was no chance of them overtaking us!), the crowds were still solid – driving up to the start itself the crowds were very deep, with people asking for autographs and saying hello, and the commentator keeping things moving with each car taking about 30 seconds while the mayor held a flag over the windscreen in true ceremonial style – he was very chatty and enthusiastic which was much appreciated by us as normally by the end people have had enough!

We drove off through even more excited crowds, and back home – quite a different experience from doing the two seafront stages but still a good PR exercise, I’m sure. Tomorrow will be completely different, however, and it’s time to see how well we can go; I have heard reports that some of the stages are really rough this year, with some tricky sections as well, so it will certainly not be easy for anyone!