RAC Rally of the Tests 2024 - Prologue Plays Misty for Openers

80 crews were eased into the most competitive regularity rally of the year, the RAC Rally of the Tests, with two regularities and two tests around the Darlington area. Mist and slippery surfaces gave them a small taster of what could lie ahead!

Come Sunday night, competitors will have covered nearly 740 miles from Darlington to Windermere via Scotland. They will have driven in anger against the clock on 34 exacting tests and tried their best to find the route and time controls over 24 regularities. Add two demanding Time Control Sections to the schedule and you have the summary of the most competitive and relentless rally of the year.

For teams from 11 different countries to gather for the ‘Test Fest’ is testament to the international pull that this rally has. Competitors have come from Ireland, the UK, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, Poland, Germany, Malaysia, Hong Kong, the USA and the Ilse of Man.

Quick, right out of the blocks and leading with seven seconds of penalties after the Prologue are the back-to-back winners in 2023-24, Dan Willan and Niall Frost. Previous Rally of the Tests winners individually, Andy Lane and Iain Tullie in their BMW 2002tii are seven seconds behind Dan and Niall, but a great performance on the Prologue came from Angus McQueen and Mike Cochrane in their Ford Cortina to take third place.

The shorter but still demanding ‘Lite’ version of the Rally of the Tests, running behind the main field today, is lead by Dick and Harry Baines in their Mini Cooper S from Malcolm Dunderdale and Anita Wickin’s Mercedes 190.

At dinner at the end of the evening, two great veteran competitors on no less than 20 RAC Rally of the Tests each, Ted Gaffney and Michael Moss, were awarded special framed commemorative pictures illustrating the rally plates and cars from each of the twenty rallies they had been on. Following his speech of thanks, Ted said he was ‘chuffed to pieces’ with the recognition of the feat, that only he and Michael had achieved.

Dan Willan said after his and Niall Frost’s great start to the 2024 rally: “Yeah a really good start, a nice couple of hours out in the lanes with two really nice tests and two good regularities. But as everyone's been saying, the main thing is just to get through the Prologue, because we've been waiting all day with the nerves building up, so it's just good to start, and having retired on a Prologue a couple of years ago, I know how hard it can be, your shoulders drop, and you feel really bad. It won't count for much in the results because it's only a short few sections, but we are happy to be here, after a clean run.

“There was a little bit of mist, a little bit of fog about. There must have been a lot of farmers moving livestock around too, as there was a lot of mud on the roads. We did one test, which has had some sheep in the field, that was very, very slippery with all the little bits of poop where the sheep have been!”

Andy Lane in said of their second place: “That was much to our surprise, I think we were aiming to be a little bit slower, so we got more of a lie in tomorrow morning! It’s good though, and the car's feeling good, which is half the battle, so we are happy with that.”

Angus McQueen commented on the strong start from himself and navigator Mike Cochrane in their Ford Cortina: “We are very excited, actually, it's a great start for us. Mike said it went well, and it surely did, the tests in the dark are always a bit of a challenge but the surface out there was fantastic. Mike's a great navigator, the car is going well and seems to be sorted now, but we don't want to peak too early! Some of the advantages of a three-day event are that you can make a mistake and recover it, but you can also start really well and lose it. However, that's part of the challenge, isn't it?” 

Amongst the eight German crews enjoying the rally so far was 1971 VW Beetle driver Joachim Kayser who has been drawn back to the Rally of the Tests; “It was fantastic. I must admit, it started a bit foggy, the rain was on the street, so it was very slippery, and I needed to get used to it again, but it's so much fun. It's so fast, it's really a great event. We are highly excited, highly excited, this is our highlight of the year.” Joachim and navigator Patrick Diemer are 28^th and seventh in class so far.

Michael Pedley is also loving it and having fun with his daughter Ciara navigating in their green Ford Escort RS 2000. Michael: “OK maybe one of the tests we might have gone the wrong side so it could be right or wrong, but other than that, it was super with some nice roads. We've done three before, but we always come back for more because I'm here for the enjoyment, we're loving the Escort, as well! The lanes were fantastic, the tests were interesting, good and flowing. We have three full days enjoyment ahead, which we are really looking forward to.”