Oh Dear, What Have I Agreed To This Time..

I would class myself as confident when faced with a demanding rally stage and a set of pacenotes. It's what I do, what I know, and what i'm known for. I find it a pleasure to apply 100% concentration whilst travelling at three-figure speeds down a gravel forest road, knowing that if any of my instructions are not exactly on time or perfectly accurate, things could at best, be pretty terrible. And thats before we even question the car or the driver's ability..

So when chatting to my girlfriends brother Adam a while back, and he suggested I take the right seat in an event where its not raw, outright speed in question, but actually the ability to navigate a route, who was I to say I was washing my hair that day? But its not just any old route we, sorry I, must navigate us down. As far as I can see it's completely unknown to everyone until about 37seconds before we start and from what I hear it's made up of snow and ice covered back roads, some paved, some, well, not paved. And just to put the cherry on the top, it's in the midst of a freezing cold New England winter, at night!

Now that i've agreed, and made some calls, a few well known members of the USA rally community said "Robbie, you're British, I bet you know exactly what you are doing. No sweat as all you Brits began doing road rallies in the dark and the cold when you were, like, 14 years old!"

Now that may well be true for a number of British co-drivers, in fact many of the most successful ones to date, but what I never found an appropriete time to mention was, even though I originate from Wales, I've never done a road rally in my life, ever....

Meant to be fun, they say....Well i'm just getting myself plain confused.

However in spite of this, I know a bit about car preparation and whats needed to compete in a road rally. So a week or so ago, Adam and myself prepared his Impreza WRX for the event. A sump guard, map light, various tools, some external lamps, snow tyres and so on are all neccessary. As I said, the event runs through the night and if you go off the road or have a breakdown, you could be out there some time....great. A large flask of tea and some sandwhiches seem a sensible addition to me.

Well I think I can deal with things so far, but the bit I don't quite get, is what all the jargon means? CAS, BFZ, CZT, OM and SOL are all terms i'm meant to know, and not just that, i'm meant to know what to do with them all! To all that I just say OMG!

My job tonight then, is to read and learn, starting at the beginning I know i'll have to crack it. Good job I love a challenge!

I'll update and take some pics as we get closer to the event this weekend, so of course, check back and see exactly how things go! If you hear nothing, I could well be stranded somewhere up near Canada. But it's ok, they say most people should survive one night outside up there, before either the weather, or the bears, get you...lovely jubbly.