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Rally News - March 8, 2009
Rallying in the Dark - or, Things that go Bump in the Night!
The introduction of two night stages to the Brick & Steel Border Counties Rally will add a pretty unique flavour to this year's event. Not since the Scottish, Burmah and Border rallies in the 70s and the old Trossachs rallies in the 80s have we had regular night time trips through the woods. Many folk will have done the Tunnock's Tour of Mull and the Jim Clark, but the big difference there is the stages are on tarmac.
The old hands will have a fair idea of what lies ahead, but for the latest generation of weans and youngsters, going to the woods in the dead of night will be a whole new experience - at least for the purposes of going rallying.
So in a bid to be helpful, Jaggy spoke to Jim McRae who has competed on and edndured, just about every type of weather and surface, day and night, since he started rallying umpteen years ago.
Jim's first piece of advice: "Be sure to set up the lights well ahead of the rally, don't leave it till the last minute." And added: "If you have a four light set up, the top two should be pointing dead ahead, the bottom two should be pointed slightly outwards to highlight the ditches - more splayed for 2WD cars than for 4WD cars!
"If you do get it sideways, the outside of the bend will be in darkness, creating a blind spot, hence the need to point the bottom two lights more to the side."
"Driving at speed also requires much more concentration. The driver should concentrate on what he or she can see and not try to anticipate."
In other words.listening to the co-driver calling out the Notes becomes even more important, because the driver's vision will be severely restricted by the range of the lamps.
So Jaggy then spoke to 'Lucky' Sturrock, 
ace note maker and provider: "Many of the current competitors have never competed at night on forest stages so the safety DVD we produce will give the competitors a valuable insight into the limited view they may not be prepared for."
He also sent me a 'still' from his DVD, but check out the Scotmaps website for the latest news. 'Lucky' already has a video clip from last year's Armstrong Galloway Hills on his site to show newcomers what it's like.
His Border DVD recording is also available in daylight, whether contesting the National A or National B parts of the event.
However, only those contesting the National A event as part of the Pirelli MSA National Gravel Rally Championship will be doing the two night stages. For the rest, contesting the Hankook MSA Scottish series, Saturday's five stages will be in daylight.
In other words, if you do want to have a crack at night stages, it's well worth doing the whole event. Yes, it will cause additional expense, but think of the experience. If you've never done it before, it's absobluidylutely magic!
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