The Comp Sec's Column!

As your new Competition Secretary, my first job should be to introduce myself to the membership. My involvement in motor sport began with spectating on the Lombard RAC Rally at the tender age of six, and wishing the SAAB 99 Turbo could keep up with the Lancia Stratos without breaking its transmission!

My first event as a competitor was not until 1984, as a 14-year-old navigator on 12-car navigational rallies and all night road rallies, in various SAAB 96 V4's and a SAAB 99, before progressing to Stage Rallying two years later. The following year saw me try my hand at driving my own SAAB 96 V4 on several Croydon & District Motor Club 12-car rallies, having only recently passed my test (have you spotted the recurring theme, yet?)

After several years as the CDMC 12-car co-ordinator and competition secretary, I enjoyed a short spell as Vice Chairman and then Chairman, before standing down for personal reasons. In the meantime, my role as Field Results Co-ordinator on the Winter Rally and my joining Southern to do the (whisper the event name please) London International Rally, lead to an increase in my involvement with Croydon's "sister" club.

This soon evolved into a committee member position a couple of years ago and now to the role of Competition Secretary. However, I expect this position to be somewhat different to the one I occupied 10 years ago at Croydon.

Back then, Road Rallying was a very popular discipline of the sport with a Motoring News sponsored national championship and local association rounds regularly attracting 100 to 120 entries. The events were very different to the ones today, with the emphasis heavily on speed. Although it was great fun racing round the Kent lanes, and especially Romney Marsh, from 11 on a Saturday night until dawn on the Sunday, it wasn't the most responsible of activities. With the route information given out in advance and competitive sections timed to the second, the events were nothing more than road races on the public highway. For the sake of the sport, this couldn't be allowed to continue and the RACMSA, as they were then known, changed the rules to slow down the events and return them to their original format of being both navigational and driving events. At the time, many bemoaned their interference as spoiling the fun, but hindsight shows that their actions may have saved road rallying from complete extinction.

As Comp. Sec. then, my main duties were to act as the club's recipient for event regulations for both road and stage events, provide a summary of them for the club magazine and to organise the club's 12-car championship and other club events. These events provided an ideal training ground for novices, before progressing onto road rallying. They were also hugely popular as social events, with many of the club members turning out to marshal or to take part.

As far as the present is concerned, the majority of Southern's active competitors are registered contenders for specific championships and receive the various event regulations direct from the organisers. However, I should still receive some event regs from time to time, which I will bring along to club nights whenever I can.

The area of club life I intend to promote most heavily, therefore, is that of low key competitive events for club members, and hopefully, their friends and family. These people are often the best source of new members, but are rarely helped or encouraged to progress onto higher status events. I am a firm believer that we should be doing more to help novice competitors get started.

It was therefore pleasing to have half-a-dozen or so novices attend my first navigation evening at a recent club night. On the strength of this interest, I am encouraged to look at running several more of these, possibly followed by a couple of 12-car rallies, if there is enough interest. These events may seem to be of little relevance to all you budding Richard Burns and Colin McRae wannabes out there, but consider this. The key to success in rallying at any level is teamwork. It doesn't matter how fast you can drive on the stages. You won't win if you go the wrong way on a road section, book into time controls early, struggle to communicate and listen effectively on the move or fail to build the level of trust required between a driver and a navigator for total commitment to pace notes! They are also particularly relevant for potential competitors on Historic and Classic Rallies, a good proportion of which involve not only special timed tests off the public highway, but also "plot-and-bash" navigational road sections between the tests.

It would therefore seem sensible to learn these vital, team-building skills on cheap, low speed events, where an error is unlikely to involve major damage to the car or your wallet. If you would like to have a go at this type of event, there are also a number of 12 car rallies organised by Croydon & Sevenoaks motor clubs, to which Southern members are invited. If you are interested in any of the above or would like some advice on how to get started, please feel free to contact me, at my new address, shown at the front of the magazine.