Dirty Weekend

I visited a Hill Rally this weekend near Stratford in Warwickshire. It’s not a form of motorsport that I’m that familiar with to be honest. A mate of mine does them in a chopped down, roofless V8 LR Defender, I’d not seen him in a while so I thought I’d pop along.

The event was organised by a local club, the Midland Rover Owner’s Club and was only down the road. It was a ‘Comp Safari’, from what I can gather this works like a cross between a rally special stage and a trials course. It’s against the clock but the terrain is very rough (as you’d expect) so the crews have to temper their speed with caution to avoid getting stuck, or worse.

We had heavy rain the day before, which softened up the ground a treat, creating deep ruts filled with water. This made for a much more challenging course for the crews, which added to the entertainment.

It was a good day, my mate Steve managed to knacker his gearbox by lunchtime though. Come to think of it, I don’t know if he’s ever actually finished an event! Very cheap to watch (free) and quite safe by off road motorsport standards (as long as you don’t stand somewhere stupid). Even in this small club meet there was some real trick stuff (Bowler Wildcats and the like) and an awesome V8 soundtrack.

Good clean fun. Well, sort of.

Tags: 2010, land rover, off road, safari