Navigational Rallying
Navigation rallies take place on public roads in more or less standard cars, usually in the hours of darkness. Navigational rallies are often referred to as "road rallies", but strictly speaking there are some differences in the rules, and true road rallies are extinct in Scotland, though still flourishing in Wales.
Navigation rallies are legally restricted to an average speed of 30 mph. The object is to follow the correct route while maintaining this average speed, no faster, no slower. The "30 average" may not sound very fast, but that includes the time spent stationary working out the route on the map; maintaining the required average speed in practice requires some enthusiastic driving.
Being the fastest on the road is not the way to win a road rally. The score is kept in terms of penalty points; you get a small penalty for being late at a time control (checkpoint), and larger penalties for being early, for missing out part of the route, for arriving at a checkpoint in the wrong direction, or for missing a checkpoint entirely.
The winners are the crew who follow the correct route, and arrive at each control on time; the navigation is at least as important as the driving.
Scottish Navigational Rally Championship 2018
This year’s
championship started with the GMSC Aquarius Rally on 27/28 January. With 19
entries this was an improvement from last year. This year the rally moved from its
previous base in Kinross to a start venue in Cupar and a finish venue at
McDonalds in Glenrothes. Whilst the
former seemed to work OK I’m not so sure about McDonalds, which I do not think
was the organiser’s first choice! This
may have had something to do with the results not being declared on the night,
but the following Monday instead, then allowing a week for any protests, of
which there were none.
The event winners
(& top Experts) were Dave MacKintosh / Duncan Cameron in the Fiesta,
narrowly beating top Novice crew of Craig Wallace / Niall Thomson in their
Toyota. Third place and top Non-Experts
were Gary & Alan Ross in their Citroen.
The next round of the
Championship will be the SDMC Gropers Rally running on 17th March. As I write this entries are also up from last
year with 16 confirmed and another 2 drivers who want to enter but are
struggling to find navigators.
Saltire Classic Targa Rally- Unfortunately the lead up period of w/c 26th February
was when the so called ‘Beast from the East’ hit Scotland and with deep snow
drifting over the roads in the area making it highly unlikely that access to
the tests would be possible. The
organising committee made the correct decision to postpone the event in time
for travelling competitors to cancel accommodation booked etc. The good news is that the event had a full
entry and I suspect will still have a full entry at the re-scheduled date of 18th
November.
Dave
MacKintosh (Co-ordinator for Road Events)
Championship Regulations and Event Regulations and latest Positions are available in the Downloads section at the foot of this page.The Scottish Association's road events coordinator is
David MacKintosh
Phone - 01224 784780
Mobile - 07715 177296
Email - dave@newtonhillhr.co.uk
The Championship Rallies
Navigational Rally Downloads
Navi Rally 2017Navi Rally 2016Navi Rally 2015Navi Rally 2014Navi Rally 2013Navi Rally 2012Navi Rally 2011Navi Rally 2010