Skoda Rally Blog

It’s been a while since I’ve done any updates, but that doesn’t mean I’ve not been busy.  I’ve just mostly been busy doing other things, although there was some chance of a drive at Ypres but this fell through last week; in anticipation of that I’d got the car back on the road and ready in case, so it’s actually in good shape – the suspension is all back in place having been reassembled and lubricated, and the car ran 100%, which was good of it.  But it wasn’t to be as the deal fell through, sadly.

Today has seen the publication of Rally Guide 1 for Wales Rally GB 2011, and having had a read through and looked at the stages and timings, it looks like it would be a real challenge – the event starts in the North of the country, and has service in Builth Wells for the duration of the event, with lots of new stages and it would be a massive logistical challenge to undertake for someone like me – there’s a fair bit of movement in terms of sleeping and so on both for recce and during the event.

But of course this is all largely theoretical; while the car is eligible for the event and I have my 2011 International Licence, I am short of two things:

1) A Navigator.  Paul isn’t able to do Rally GB again unfortunately due to family commitments, so that’s a huge blow – it’s not just the navigating side of things that he’s excellent at, we also have a good laugh in the car, and on long road sections that’s important.  Plus he’s about the most organised person I know, and totally unflappable, which has been very useful in the past on many occasions.

2) Money.  To do Rally GB typically costs about £4000, plus any damage and repairs and so on after the event.  It obviously means a lot of time to be committed by me as well to get the car and everything else ready, but that’s an aside – the event is about £4k to do for the week, all in.

So, I’m really not sure what to do.  I’d love to do it again, especially as the event is once more completely different, and it would be a huge challenge.  But I’d need to find a navigator who sees the event in the same way I do, and is willing to put in a significant amount of money to do the event.  And I think that will probably be as much of a challenge as the week in mid-November.  Answers on a postcard…