Support Your Sport …
The New Year has barely lurched into life and that’s not the sound of the wind blowing through the trees, it’s the whingers and moaners sighing and getting their gripes in early. I have just one request. Please stop it. Life is for living, get on with it.
I’m referring primarily to those competitors who complain about having sometimes to travel ‘long’ distances to and from events. Regardless of where the best stages in the UK are, there are some grumpy, unimaginative folk who just won’t visit them – because they’re too far away!
Then there are those who complain that they visit the same old forest and tarmac tests time and time again. Admittedly there is some truth in that, with limited tarmac available for such use and a restricted choice of forests, but Crail and Otterburn change with the seasons just as much as Clatteringshaws and Clashindarroch. Surfaces change, sightlines are altered, trees grow taller and sometimes forested hillsides are shorn. No stage is exactly the same two years running.
Which brings me to Machrihanish. This year in an attempt to do something different, the organisers of the Scottish Tarmack Championship are working on a two-day rally on the Mull of Kintyre. Paul McCartney and the American Air Force have long since left the Argyll peninsula so it is now safe for ordinary people to visit. But already there are grumbles in the ranks. Apparently it’s awfy far away!
Crikey we’re not talking Time Zones here. Campbeltown is only 140 miles from Glasgow, or 190 miles from Inverness. Admittedly there are no Motorways in this part of the world, so the roads may well be cluttered with old microbuses and surf boards heading for some of the best surf in the country. The answer is to just chill out, take in the views and enjoy the anticipation of getting there.
Dating back to 1918, the old Machrihanish airbase is where Dunfermline CC are proposing to run their new event over the weekend of 5/6 July. The plan is to start the event on the Saturday afternoon, pause for barbecue, light refreshments, and possibly some terpsichorean exercise, on Saturday night and resume rallying on Sunday morning. In other words, those on a tight budget could do it all in a weekend. OK, so you’d be knackered at work on Monday morning. We’ve all been there. It’s nothing new.
The big attraction is a venue never before used for such an event. And considering this was one of the biggest and least used airbases in the UK, the tarmac runways, and the maze of perimeter avenues and site roads are in pretty good nick. The big challenge will be to come up with a route which makes best use of the 3 km long main runway – yes, that’s 1.87 miles.
So, a word to the wise. Try it first, then moan if you must. We should be encouraging car clubs to seek out new venues, not putting them off.
And that goes for all events. If we don’t enter them and support them we’ll lose them. Once lost, it’s hugely unlikely we’ll ever get them back. Jings I can remember when the Scottish was a week long adventure with 60 stages and we used to have the Hackle Rally and Arbroath Stages, the Burmah Rally and the Argyll, the Checkpoint Stages and Festival. And where are they now? Gone forever.
And here’s a few more names to conjure with, Minard and Ardgarten, Blairadam and Ladywell, Glentress and Cardrona, and many, many more. All gone, but not forgotten. The trouble is, the more stages we lose, the more we will never get back.
And yes, I know the sport is awfy expensive, but that’s your choice. You know that before you open your wallet. You walk into it with eyes wide open. Just don’t complain when you get there. For sure a life of penury awaits – but think of the memories. No matter how slow you pedalled those forests they will remain forever scorched into your memory banks. I know, I’ve been there.
So if there is a rally car in the garage, take it out for an airing this year and support your sport and car club. And if you have hung up your driving gloves, why not lend a hand marshalling, timekeeping and generally supporting your local car club.
Think of it as not just what the sport can do for you, but what you can do for the sport. So let’s all make the most of it this year. See you in Machrihanish or a forest somewhere.
As a friend once said; “We’re here for a good time, not a long time.”