Inter-Regional Road Rally

Sunday, July 31^st 2005

Contents

• Introduction
• 2009: Wales, WAMC
• 2008: Scotland, ESACC
• 2007: Northern, ANWCC
• 2006: Southern, ASEMC
• 2005: Midlands, AWMMC
• 2004: Northern Ireland, ANICC
• 2003: Midlands, EMAMC
• 2002: Scotland, ESACC
• 2001: Southern, ACSMC
• 2000: Northern, ANWCC
• 1999: Midlands, AWMMC
• 1998: Northern Ireland, ANICC
• 1997: Midlands, ANEMMC
• 1996: Scotland, AWSMSC
• 1995: Southern, LCAMC
• 1994: Wales, WAMC
• 1993: Southern, ASWMC
• 1992: Northern Ireland, ANICC
• 1991: Midlands, LCAMC
• 1990: Scotland, ?
• 1989: Southern, LCAMC

This annual event is hosted by one of the 15 Regional Associations of Motor Clubs within the MSA. The country is divided into six large regions and allocated to one of those. The Regional Associations that fall within each of these larger regions then fight it out amongst themselves to host the rally. Having decided which Association will promote the rally, a club or two is then chosen to actually run the event.

Traditionally the event has a strong `navigational' flavour rather than a standard road rally flavour. The event was originally the idea of Brian Ottridge (RAFMSA) as a means of pitting road rally crews from all over the UK against each other since the loss of Motoring News events make this no longer possible. There is no British Road Rally Championship currently although the current trends in modern road rallying may make this a growing possibility if only the MSA was sufficiently open-minded to consider it with a view to wanting to make it happen.
 
 

"The Early Winter Rally features 200 miles of the best roads in the Scottish Borders, starting and finishing in Jedburgh on Saturday 16^th November 2002.

The two main organisers are Monty Pearson (01361) 8844448, (CoC) and Derek Mclean (01368) 850367 (Asst. CoC).

We are both experienced organisers in our own right, but we have not collaborated before. Working together is becoming quite interesting for us. We hope it will be just as interesting for you.

Make a note in your diary. Plans are already well advanced. It will be a navigational event, with some timing to the second. Accomodation is being arranged through the Scottish Borders Tourist Board, with lots of choice available, i.e. locations, prices etc.

Regs. are already available in draft form, although some changes will undoubtedly be made before actual publication.

We hope to see there in exactly a years time.

Derek McLean"

Clerk of the Course was Matthew Fowle, Tel: (01273) 551145.

The winning Association was the Association of South Eastern Motor Clubs (ASEMC).
Overall winning crew was Mike East and Roger Davidson.

The host Association for this event is Association of North-Western Car Clubs (ANWCC) of which I am Championship Secretary.  Last year we were
invited (told) that we would be hosting the event so selected a club and
event that met with the criteria as we knew it.  Then, last year, came
Ludlow Castle's Peak Revs which should have been the event but wasn't as it
did not meet a whole host of criteria that few knew about, including ANWCC.

... so, we set about finding out the rules for the Inter-Association
Navigational Road Rally Challenge, and these included the date (had to be
October/November), had to be navigational and there were a few other things
which were not a problem.  So, our original choice of event was canned, and
High Peak & 061 MC's Road Rally in October met with all the criteria except, arguably,
the navigational one as the event did run to "normal" road rally rules.

... anyway, since then, the Regional Committee has sat and the event is now
permissible as either a Road Rally or a Navigational Rally.  High Peak & 061 MC's
organising team are happy, and the event will take place in Derbyshire as
planned, to their usual format and everyone can have a damn good thrash
around the narrow lanes in the accepted way that road rallies are supposed
to be run (to the book) - please avoid the drystone walls!

Here is a report from PRAR.

The O61 Road Rally ran on 21&22-Oct-2000. Details from Martin Payne on (01663) 745074

According to the organisers:
"We hope our experiences of the 1992 event will ensure a more enjoyable formula for the 1998 version. Again, we will arrange an attractive package for mainland crews, to include return(!) ferry tickets, entry fee and breakfast. We hope to welcome many mainland crews to Northern Ireland in October".
For further details contact:

• Ian Harrison+Rob Watson (Dolphin MC)
• Trevor Joel+Stefan Arndt (Windsor CC and Hart MC)
• Chris Moore+Andy Coshan (Wessex CC)

Inorder to split many other ties due to the very low penalties (easy roads and trivial route instructions), navigators handwriting was examined in fine detail and, despite using seven letter/digit codeboards, many received fails for getting one letter out of seven wrong. There were an awful lot of unhappy crews at results time: perhaps its time to remember what road rallying should be test of!

The 1997 rally ran on 6th/7th December 1997, hosted by the Association of North East Midlands Motor Clubs (ANEMMC), using OS Sheets 106(B3) and 107(B1). The Beaver Rally was run by Beverley and District Motor Club with Graeme Potter (01482) 708790 as Clerk of the Course. The route consisted of around 150 miles none of which is whites. The route instructions were very simple including: map references (via and avoid), spot heights, gridlines, grid squares, tulips, herringbones.

PRAR has written a more extensive review of the Beaver.

Further details are available here

The Rally was running on 1/2 October but was postponed to the 14th January 1995 on the Island of Anglessey. The original ACSMC teams (which didn't take compete in the end) are given here.

Here are some comments from David Crooke:
Judging by the description, the 1990 IARR will have been Hawick & Border CC's Teviotdale Rally. The infamous overlap was caused by two editions of sheets 73 and 74, where they used different alignments of the national grid. The white in question is the old road running parallel to the A68 just south of the river Lauder; on one alignment of the grid, a certain vertical line crosses the current A68, and on the other it cuts the white. Standard local knowledge in the Borders. Been there, dropped it ... :( This is no more with the advent of the new 73 B and 74 B1 editions.
Here are some more comments by Nigel Mollett:

The second one was run the following year in Scotland. Start in Hawick. Can't remember much coz we missed a TC on a white which was on a overlapped portion of the map - it appeared on one map but not on the other. The organisers had said at the start that one map took priority over the other in cases of overlaps. A bit sneaky in my opinion! I think the LCAMC won again.

Here are some more detailed commments by Nigel Mollett:
Now lets see if I can remember back to the first Inter-Association Road Rally.... Ah ha! I've found a Transmission mag from December 1989 which has an article from Bernie Marsden about the event. It was the Alnite Rally, run on 25/26th November 1989. Organised by RAFMSA, Northampton & DMC and Huntingdonshire MC. Principal organiser/COC Brian Otridge. Started in Peterborough. 13 association teams ran (with 1,2 or 3 crews). LCAMC came 1st association. ACSMC came a close second by only 9 minutes. ACSMC provided each of their 3 crews with 50 quid towards expenses! ACSMC crews included Me and Bernie Marsden, and Terry Schraider and Chas Davies. I can't remember who the other crew was but I don't think it was a WCC pairing. The winners were from Scotland (and they complained that the navigation was too easy!).

Comment of the rally before the event came from Terry Schraider - "Usually there are half a dozen possible winners on an event. This time, almost anyone could win it!"

Nigel 

Return to:
| Road Rally Index | The UKMotorSport Index |

---

webmaster@ukmotorsport.com