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Rallying
Rallying is the most popular form of motor sport in Britain,
perhaps because it involves ordinary-looking cars going at great speed through forests and
other tricky stages. Rallying is exciting and spectacular and many of us have seen it on
television or even been a spectator at a championship or local club rally.
It involves two people working together - a driver and a
co-driver or navigator - and the cars normally run at one minute or 30 second intervals,
competing against the clock rather than directly against each other.
 Photo Credit: Dougie Macdonald
There are two main forms: stage rallies and road rallies.
Stage rallies are been the professional branch of the sport with manufactures spending millions
at the very top of the sport but there are people rallying from this level right through to clubman who
spend only their own money having bags of fun!
Stage rallies are based on straight forward speed over stretches of road/track closed to other traffic.
These may vary from asphalt mountain passes to rough forest tracks, from ice and snow to desert sand,
each chosen to provide an enjoyable challenge for the crew and a test of the car's performance and reliability.
Road rallies are a car rally which takes place on the public road, mostly very late at night.
It is a popular sport in the United Kingdom, especially Wales, and has traditionally been the core of the "grass roots" of club-based amateur motorsport.
However it has declined in popularity since the 1980s and now stage rallies are probably generally more popular with amateurs.
A very similar sport is the 12-car rally, which runs to broadly the same rules.
Stage rallies are run all through the year bringing the varied nature of the weather into the equation
with wind, rain, hail, snow and the occasional bit of sunshine. This combined
with the drivers not knowing the road ahead and being navigated by notes of the corners
some of the best car control experts in the world. Each rally has many different
stages which are different in character to maximise the variety of corners,
crests, jumps, water splashes, hairpin bends and surface changes.
Rally drivers use many different techniques to negotiate the tricky stages such as Scandinavian flick,
handbrake turn, left-foot braking and heel-and-toe.
So if you want to give it a go there are plenty of schools to suit all tastes and most take
credit cards!
As a rough rule of thumb, race circuits usually provide more exciting cars, but
higher speeds mean drivers are kept on a tight leash. Visit a rally specialist
and you will learn more about car control, but the machinery is less exotic.
Whether you are a budding rally driver, or simply want a fun day out, you’re in for a top time!
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