Jim Clark International Rally 2009

It all started on a dark, windy winter’s night, the rain was lashing at the windows, the log fire was roaring and the bar was doing good business. That’s how you can tell it’s about a rally.

I was doing a mid stage radio junction on “Grizedale stages” and spent a few hours in a bar in a Lake district hotel with some silk rally radio friends and Bob “the shorts” Wright who in a fit of excess Guinness asked if I fancied being stage commander on the Jim Clark. I had consumed most of bottle of red wine and thought it seemed a good idea.

A little while later the realisation dawned that I had a team to find, some accommodation to find and a logistical nightmare to overcome.

The information from the Jim Clark organising team was lacking to say the least, for example, my stage was on the Sunday and I was only sent Friday and Saturday’s road book ! That was one of their better organisational successes.

Jon Binns was running Bothwell stage, Jon’s stage was the same as mine but for 1 mile added at the beginning.

So, the logistics of travelling up to Kelso to camp in a field (next to noisy sheep and a road)  collecting my stage marshal goodie bags, Jon’s stage goodie bags and all the equipment for both stages as well as putting a selection of tents up on Thursday was interesting. We devoured a Chinese take away in Bob (call sign Cat 1) Fishers caravan.

Jon Binns arrived mid evening and after a few libations we all settled to the first of a few sleepless nights…

Dawn and I shared a tent, I am not saying it was cold and draughty but we had more clothes on at night than during the day !

Martin P, Ian B & Nick G shared a warmer tent… at least some of team had a good nights sleep.

Friday was set up Jon’s stage and then run it later at night…. Jon did the arrowing (9 junctions) and we completed the rest, the Buccaneer team assisted by Slaithwaite MC and a few odd bods from Sheffield & Hallamshire and Silk also pitched in, so Team Duck was back together again.

The stage is awesome, fast flowing, good condition tarmac with undulations, hairpins, steep climbs, trees, moorland and everything else you could think of.

The weather was good, nice and sunny, the work was quite easy and were done in time for a picnic by the river… how civilised.

The marshals arrived for signing on and as the day turned into dusk the rally cars started to arrive, I was on ATC with a couple of chaps who hadn’t done any timing for over 20 years but they soon got back into the swing, Martin P & Ian B were on Flying finish, Dawn and Nick were on the start line, firing the cars into stage at 30 second intervals.

At this point, I would like to point out that within an hour of arriving at Kelso Dawn had managed to damage her knee and spent most of her either hobbling or sleeping as dosed up on painkillers, but she did extremely well under the circumstances.

It was a long session on the Friday night with a couple of cars rolling in stage, we got back into camp in the early hours of Saturday morning and decided to go to bed as the sun was getting brighter, it was about 3.30am.

Saturday; the Buccaneer gang went to spectate as the HareHead Team Duck stage gang got to work in the afternoon changing the stage around for our Sunday stages, Roy Pilkington came along to view his radio point for the next day and helped set up, thanks Roy.

I was lucky enough to put together the A team of lmarshals , a stage commander role can be taken in different guises. Some SC’s are dictatorial, some are lax, some sit the radio car,  but I just build the best team I can around me, people I can rely on for their technical knowledge and ability, their enthusiasm and their professionalism and people I really like to be around.

Deputy Stage Commander – Ian Beech

Stage Safety Officer – Dave Crosland

Spectator Safety Officer – Martin Pullan

Start line timing Nick Gordge & Dawn Quinn.

Atc – Jon Binns

F/F & Stop line Bucanneer MSC

I was lucky enough to capture some Silk rally radios for mid stage and stop line and I have sent my thanks to them already, a reliable radio crew is worth its weight in gold.

One nice Scottish chap (Colin) was volunteered for my stage, he arrived for signing on and was promptly told “park up, you are on the start line” he said he didn’t do paperwork and he only did in stage marshalling. I pointed out he could write, count and was desperately needed,  he agreed to give it a go, he now wants to come back and work with us again… he enjoyed it so much.

Saturday night involved food at Kelso race course and a few beers, an early’ish start  off to stage. Ian Beech and Dave Crosland drove through, put up the radio boards, and gave it all a last minute check over… all ok and ready to run.

The cars started to arrive and we put them through, we had a few incidents, 2 cars rolled and one had a small fire, it was all dealt with by the marshals, Alan Farramond had a busy time.  

The rolled cars were recovered at the end of the stage, then a two hour break before we had it all to do again… another 130 cars at 30 second intervals, time passed quickly.

I was monitoring the 81 radio, there should have been 8 stages on the Sunday, but 5 had been cancelled, I was adamant that we would give the competitors a run, time was against us so it was decided to bend the yellow book rules a little…. Ok truth time we ripped up the yellow book and threw it away after stomping on it.

The crews were called into ATC, given the time they wanted and were set off at 30 second intervals to ensure they all got a run… one crew were in tears, they’d had such a bad event and couldn’t quite believe they were actually going to get a run.

Steve Bannister had jump started in the morning session and I had a quiet word with him.  Think he was amazed at so many Yorkshire accents in the wilds of Scotland, he didn’t jump start in the afternoon run.

All in all the whole day was long, the weather was good and the crews were fantastic, they really appreciated that we were able to get all the cars through within the allocated time frame before the road was restored to public usage.

We cleared up the stage, took the equipment back to a lock up and then whilst still dirty and exhausted we all trailed into Kelso and probably to the slight amazement of the other diners at the Chinese restaurant requested a table for 11 people who were all wearing a variety of hi viz clothing and very sun burnt, moral was higher than the moon.

It was a huge achievement to go and do an event with next to no information, no prior experience of the event and never having dealt with road closure and 30 second starts but Team Duck did it, and every Duck should be proud of their effort.

In the 20 years of motorsport I have taken part in, no event has made me smile as much, the hours were long, the weather changeable, the facilities were “interesting” the tent was awful (since replaced) but the companionship of friends and the team work and good humour was the best I have ever known.

We worked well together, we got on well together, we made a difficult situation work and ensured the crews got a run, we saved the day for some people and we enjoyed the event.

I could not have been prouder of the team and I am extremely grateful to each and every one of them who excelled in their roles.

My thanks go to Ian, Martin, Nick, Dawn, Dave C, James C, Alan of David Browns,  silk rally radio crews as well as Tony Jones, Jon & Alistair, Trevor, Matt, Gary & Melvyn of Buccaneer MSC, Silk rally radio and all the marshals who were allocated to my stage.

Karen S. - Stage Commander Harehead.

ps – The David Brown team got me a box of chocolates as a thank you for the hard work put in prior to the event, which managed to reduce me to tears, it was a lovely gesture and one I will always remember.

pps- 97 ducks were sent into stage, even the police car had a duck…

Team Duck.