1st Ever Rally

Having taken the plunge and forked out loads of hard-earned dosh for my Pug 106, I thought I had better enter an event. After all, there's nothing like a tight deadline to finish the car off in time to add to the excitement!

"The raised eyebrows when I casually mentioned that I had entered Millbrook should have been the first warning."

It appeared however that we might not need additional excitement. The raised eyebrows when I casually mentioned that I had entered Millbrook should have been the first warning. Several viewings of the video of last year's event only confirmed my suspicion. Oh S**T, what have I done! Judging by the antics of last year's competitors, the chances of coming back undented were slim to non-existent.

Oh well, no turning back now. The car was finally finished by Ian the week before and the log book was done. Ellya and Michael had agreed to be our service crew, along with my sister Sharon and Ian's brother Graham.

Sunday 3rd May

Sunday dawned and we all piled into our cars, together with several thousand sandwiches and a large packet of minstrels which were to later melt all over Ian's jacket. We picked up Michael on the way and made our way up the M1 to where the scrutineering was taken place.

This is when we should have realised the importance of carefully reading the Final Instructions! Directions were sort of given but it was only by chance that we found the place. We were, however, going by the extremely useless map that had been provided. Ian was starting to get stressed at this point.

"Realisation that we hadn't actually signed on for the event hit us..."

Having passed the noise test (85dB) and scrutineering, we then all headed back to our lovely Travel Lodge, via the pub. It was only at about 3.30pm that Sharon asked where their passes were to get into the event tomorrow. Realisation that we hadn't actually signed on for the event hit us and like mad idiots we raced back to the scrutineering place and signed on. Phew! We would certainly get the idiots' prize this weekend if nothing else!

It was at this point that we bumped into Colin Early and plans were made for that evening's food and drink. Our drive to the pub was certainly eventful and there was almost a punch up at the traffic lights after a couple of 17 year olds in Mummy's car nearly took us off the road in an undertaking manoeuvre. Ellya and Michael in the back-up car were ready to jump out and join in but luckily the lights went green!

An early start was in order for the next day so after a very long wait for our grub we all headed back to get some much needed kip. For some reason, however, I awoke thinking it was 6:00am when it was only 12:30 and I was just about to go around and wake everyone up when Ian pointed it out to me.

Monday 4th May

To say I was nervous would be an understatement! All calming thoughts had gone completely and I had managed to convince myself that I would be leaving today minus one Pug 106.

The two Colins gave loads of helpful advice and we proceeded to the first stage. One we got going we were having too much fun to be nervous. It was pretty hair-raising stuff for us beginners and I had to remind Ian to stop admiring the scenery and tell me where I was supposed to be going but we got through ok. Big smiles all round.

"The marshal said we weren't supposed to be laughing as we finished the stage..."

Throughout the day we got to know the people in cars 109 and 100 as we always seemed to be behind them in the queue! We were having a good laugh and one of the marshals even joked that we weren't supposed to be laughing as we finished the stage - rallying is a serious sport!

My times improved greatly during the day and I managed to knock over 30 seconds off each time we repeated a stage.

In the afternoon, I had a couple of "moments" but nothing too serious and we didn't actually face the way we had been coming from, much to Sharon's disappointment. The Pug came home dent free, much to my relief, which is more than can be said for some cars.

"Car 93 paid for his erratic driving on the next stage..."

Car 93 almost took us out in a wild overtaking manoeuvre (and I had moved over) and he paid the price for his erratic driving on the next stage when he rolled his car. We made sure we gave them a wave as we passed them on the stage.

Overall, we had a great day and finished 87th overall out of 105 starters - more by default than anything else but we didn't care. The important thing was to get our first signature and we can then look forward to our next event.