ROSS TRADERS HISTORIC TOUR

by Peter Noad

One of the joys of historic road rallying is that every event has its own particular character and presents a different challenge. The Ross Traders is famous (some might say notorious) for tricky navigation - or, as Mr Loveridge would say, 'accurate plotting'. After being caught out by the tricky navigation (aka accurate plotting) in 1999 and 2000, Peter Cox and I were determined to get to grips with it in 2002. We surprised ourselves by finishing second overall - our best result to date on an HRCR Championship event - so I guess we have learnt how to plot 'accurately'.

After the 2000 event there was criticism of the tricky navigation (aka accurate plotting) but the absence of a 2001 Ross Traders (due to foot and mouth) has enabled feelings to mellow and Paul Loveridge was rewarded this year with a strong entry of 53 (proving wrong anyone who had suggested that accurate plotting was unpopular).

Paul stuck to his guns and the 2002 event was in the same style as before, prefaced by some helpful advice at the driver's briefing. Mr Broughall now knows that he does not need to write a thesis about map reading, Mr Pettie now knows how many degrees there are around a cone, Mr Massam now knows what quiet and slow mean and we all know that we do not need to refer to the Blue Book.

We all knew what to expect and were prepared for the challenge of Mr L's accurate plotting. At least, those of us who had done the Ross before knew what to expect. It has to be said that this is an event in which previous knowledge is an advantage and competitors are unlikely to do well at their first attempt.

You need to know, for example, what is meant by 'do not use white roads unless specifically instructed to do so'. When you miss a codeboard or IRTC that is on a white, or on a road that is not shown on the map at all, you might wonder what exactly was the 'specific instruction'. Naturally, it all comes down to 'accurate plotting'.

Regularities timed to the minute are another feature of the Ross. These sound easy, but they're not. We've been unsure how to cope with them in the past, but Peter Cox devised a strategy that seemed to work this time and we cleaned all the IRTCs except one. We were extremely unlucky to drop one minute - it was due to zeroing the trip at a control before we discovered that it was a manned passage, not an IRTC. We then hesitated while calculating the mileage and were 16 seconds down when we arrived at the IRTC. Unfortunately, the due time was X mins 45 secs, so we were into the next minute by just one second.

As we approached the petrol stop we caught up the red TR2 (is it just new paint or a new body?) of Peter Pratt/Julie Eaglen and the Volvo of Keith Wilson/Peter Blackett, who should have been 8 or 10 minutes ahead. This is normally a sign that we have missed out a loop but, no, on this occasion we were OK and were actually leading the field at lunch. Peter Cox had remembered two of the 'accurate plots' from 1999 and one from 2000 so we had stayed on the route.

The tests at Whitfield were good fun and didn't tax the memory too much. However, after having an outer CV joint fail on a test on the Leukaemia, and finding that it might be impossible to obtain any more (Audi has deleted the parts as being obsolete), I am nervous about the CVJ on the other side and decided to take it easy on the tests and not go for fastest times. Rallies are not usually won on the tests, I thought. In fact, at the end of the day, there was only 2 seconds between us and third place, so I judged it rather finely:

The 2 hour-long timed-to-the-second regularity after lunch took us over the border into Wales via Capel-y-ffin and the Gospel Pass, with some spectacular views. The route involved a lot of 'accurate plotting' and, like most competitors, we took advantage of the penalty-free lateness at the start of the regularity to get it pre-plotted. I think we were about 14 mins behind schedule when we set off.

We made a couple of mistakes. Mr Cox will probably say that I made the mistakes because I plotted that bit while we were stationary, but I did suggest that he should check my plotting: Whatever - we or should I say I must have made fewer mistakes than most of the other competitors. It was basically just map symbols and grid lines but these were all 'carefully selected' to maximise the probability of errors. I had plotted a loop using the usual rally roads (as Peter Rushforth agreed) and not the straight road which was the (unlikely) correct route.

We met a lot of tourist traffic coming the other way on the narrow bits so it was just as well it was only 20 or 22 mph. We were following Peter Baker in his Appia at one stage and admired his air-brake - the driver's door opens if he is going too fast:

The fifth and last regularity was again timed to the minute, or so it said on the handout. The marshals had not been told and recorded seconds. We had a discussion and I said we should do it according to the written instructions, not the marshal's verbal comments. Some competitors drove it as timed to the second, which was a big mistake - after 3 or 4 IRTCs you can amass 2 or 3 minutes of lateness penalties if you work on timed to the second instead of minute. As well as plotting accurately, you have to read accurately.

In his speech when he received his trophy for a well-deserved win (navigated by Anthony Preston), Terry Pickering summed up all our feelings - a super event, great route, great organisation, great marshalling, super tests, super food, super awards. Anyone who says otherwise can expect to be singled out at next year's driver's briefing and told to plot accurately.

If at first you didn't succeed, tis better to try again.

Peter Noad