by Jaggy Bunnet (04 Apr 01)

Look on the bright side: if we're not going rallying we're saving money. This money can be used to buy bigger, faster and noisier greasy bits for next year. Failing that, it can be put to good use finishing off last season's pre-event preparation for this season. You wouldn't believe the number of cars that didn't make the start of the Snowman or Sunseeker rallies because they weren't quite finished or were still waiting for parts!

Did you note the use of the term "next year" above?

Anyone who thinks that rallying will return to normal after the election in June is two hubcaps short of a full set. July? No chance. August? Forget it. September? Doubt it. October? Only if it snows in the Sahara. November? Maybe.

I'm not trying to be a pessimist, just a realist. Even if the sport gets permission to resume, it will be four months after the announcement before a rally car sees a tree.

The RSAC Scottish Rally which was supposed to start the British series off on the first weekend of June following the Welsh and Cumbrian cancellations is now looking at a September date and the Jim Clark Memorial could have an entry from Santa Claus if it runs this year at all.

And if you think the Isle of Man is going to want rallying over there, then you can forget that. Even with three legs on their coat of arms, they can still catch F&M despite the 25% reduction in available limbs.

In other words, if rallying does resume this year, all the senior international events will hog the best dates and to hell with the clubmen.

Better to get on with it and make the best of a bad job. The last time that F&M struck it heralded a rise in interest in navigational road rallying with a number of clubs organising table top rallies and championships. By heck, it did the social side of motor sport a fair bit of good.

I recall some organisers tried to inject a dose of realism into their table top events by providing shoogly tables - to simulate motion; using a watering can to douse paperwork - to simulate wet, sodden marshals opening the door and dripping over mapboards; switching off the lights - to simulate darkness (and few had brought torches). But it wasn't so easy to puncture a table leg!

It was also a time which heralded the rise in popularity of Rally Roadshows, and the Rothmans sponsored series of events (in the '70s) were excellent with films, rally guests, celebrity hosts and competitions. Some of these garage showroom events were packed out with folk standing in the street peering through the windows.

The re-introduction of table top rallies would be a good idea. Nice wee simple tests for drivers (like how many wheels are there on a four wheel drive rally car?) and slightly more complicated ones for co-drivers (like how many wheels would a four wheel drive rally car have after your driver is finished with it?) would be fine. The Roadshow idea could be resurrected, revamped and re-launched on a rally starved public. It would give us a real chance to take the sport to the people and attract more folk to clubs. After all, a table top rally is just a computer game in 3D.

If we can use this current setback to inject a bit of life back into the car club social scene then perhaps the sport can salvage something from this catastrophe whilst supporting Britain's farmers.

Yer auld pal,

Jaggy.

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