RtG The Daily Dispatch - Generations 2022 - web single pages - Flipbook - Page 2
24 to 26 March 2023
Day 1
Cumbrian Fells (100 miles)
24 March 2023
Photos: gerardbrown.co.uk
Welcome to the return of the award-winning Generations Rally. Conceived by the Rally the Globe team
to bring motoring families closer together, this second generation has again been delivered by the
motoring midwives that are Martyn Taylor and Mark Appleton.
Rather than the sun soaked Lake District of last year, 2023
finds us hunkered down in the slightly cooler sunshine and
showers of Slaley Hall, Northumberland, England’s Border
County. There are plenty of bright spots in the car park
though. A quick run round uncovered a glittering array of
vehicles even more generationally diverse than their crews.
Ranging from a venerable 1920’s Vauxhall right through to
a capricious 1980’s Capri - the only one, according to it’s
crew, still paying road tax.
Once again Patrick Blakeney-Edwards has brought the
youngest navigator to the party - as well as the only chain
driven car. His daughter, 13 year old Scarlett, is hoping to
better the result of her, now 14 year old, brother James
who, last year, delivered his father and their Frazer Nash
a creditable 8th place in a very competitive class. Sibling
rivalry is a powerful, motivating force.
Muriel Cooper, the oldest navigator, is here alongside
her son George in his 1958 Jaguar. This is her first rally
and, upon being asked what the attraction was, she replied,
“…everything. The landscapes, the adventure and getting
to spend time in the area where i was born”. She signed
off with “i may be the oldest navigator but, sadly, i’m also
likely to be the most inexperienced”.
Whatever their age, for all of the crews here, the morning
was taken up with scrutineering, documentation and
sorting any last minute issues. Andy inskip, Charlie Neale,
Owen Turner, Jack Amies, Russ Smith and Garry George
saw to the cold wet dirty side of things, whilst Kitty Burdett,
Audrey Rudd, Andrew Kellitt, Andy Jardine and Gill Cotton
dished out the paperwork and the all important rally gifts.
Electrical gremlins had taken over various trip meters,
indicators and running lights so, as well as making good
use of their spanners, the sweeps’ multimeters saw the
light of day before everyone assembled in the dining room
for the welcome briefing.
Before lunch was served Fred Gallagher and Mark
Appleton ran through some of the finer points of rallying
then, at 13.01, the cars were flagged away from the
courtyard towards a packed half-day of two Tests, two
Regularities and a Passage Control section.
Hexham racecourse opened the day with a hillclimb Test,
where the going was definitely good to firm on the way
to the Passage Control at Moralee Fell. Soon after this the
first Regularity marched us over and along the ancient,
yet still stout, Hadrian’s Wall and past the market town
of Haltwhistle, which proudly proclaimed itself to be the
centre of Britain.
Our latter day legionnaires were then rewarded with
a Time Control coffee break at Naworth Castle, before
forming up again for the next section. This was a long, and
unfortunately very wet, Regularity through the Eden Valley
and then back to the racecourse for the final few furlongs
www.rallytheglobe.com
