A Novice Trial 2025 - Early learnings

After registration at the Hellidon Lakes Resort in Northamptonshire late Friday afternoon, an evening of light classroom tuition followed to gently ease the 35 crews into two full days of ‘A Novice Trial’, culminating in the actual rally on Sunday.

For many, this is their first-ever regularity rally and for some it is a refresher. From the aim of entering the Peking to Paris Motor Challenge, to moving into the HERO Challenges, to just learning navigation, all the crews have been devouring the classroom information delivered by Clerk of the Course Andy Pullan and Andy Darlington to enable them to get the basics right then move up the ladder.

Following scrutineering of the fantastic mix of cars on Saturday morning, a further, more intense classroom session on all aspects of historic regularity rallying navigation, including route finding, tests and timing, ran before crews went out on the road for two regularities to try out their newfound knowledge.

In order to prepare them for the tests that will be part of ‘A Novice Trial’ on Sunday, a test on foot was conducted in a section of Hellidon Lakes patio so driver and navigator could start to work on their communications techniques for when they hit the test navigation at speed in their rally cars.

After lunch there were two more regularities before a debrief back at base as the teams were starting to think about the actual competition proper on Sunday.

Ian Ramsay and Helen Warren, 1966 Rover P6 3500S

Ian: “We want to be a bit better at our navigating and to get some practice. We only started last year with our first one day HERO Championship rally, and we didn't come last, and we didn't argue either.”

Helen: “It was nerve wracking, but yes, it was fun. I’m enjoying the classroom sessions, that's the best bit, and it was my idea to do this, so we could learn more.”

Ian, “we booked ourselves on the Scottish Malts later this year. That's in September, then there's some rallies around Spain. Helen has a house in Spain, so we thought we could combine a rally with a bit of a holiday at the end of it to just recover and hopefully enjoy a good result.”

Neil McConachie and Lorraine McConachie, 1992 Mazda MX5

Neil; “This is our first historic rally. We have a 1929 Bentley, and we've entered in a vintage shamrock race, and we're doing another race in the summer in Belgium, with no clue what to do, and we felt we better learn.” Neil and Lorraine were seen negotiating the last triangle on the last practice regularity of Saturday with Neil exclaiming to the marshals, ‘Where are we, we are totally lost!’

Maisie Fieldhouse is here at Hellidon Lakes supporting her brother Miles, the winner of the second Bob Rutherford Scholarship for Young Navigators, who is navigating his father Nick in the Arrive & Drive MGB on his first event of four fully HERO-ERA funded rallies as his prize. What did sister Maisie think? “It's unbelievable, an incredible opportunity,

and he's been given the opportunity to progress with full support, so he just has to enjoy it. I like the atmosphere. I like how positive Miles is being.”

Paul and Jackie Crawford, 1961 Volvo PV544

Paul; “Actually, we're actually on holiday, we live in South Africa. We have still got family over here, so we've decided to come over for four or five months, and when we're not doing the family thing, we decided that we'd have a bit of fun. We bought the car last September, we did two scenic tours, then threw ourselves in at the deep end on the Tour of Cheshire last weekend, which was baptism of fire.

“We're hoping to do more events and to learn. We have HERO Challenge One, and two events in the Peak District and at Silverstone booked in, then we'll be back to South Africa at the end of the summer in Francis, Bay, Eastern Cape, on the Garden Route.”

Jackie; “Last night was really informative. Actually, it's helped correct and cement some of the mistakes that we've made last week.”

Russell Taylor and Sue Dansie, 1967 Austin Cooper Mk1

Russell; “Yes this our first time and we are very excited. I have been fascinated by classic cars for a long, long time and I am a Mini fan. The two things go together perfectly. You know, clearly, the big heritage of Minis in rallies, it seems to be a natural progression, plus the bit of adventure.

“My partner and I, Sue, we're trying to get a feel for how it all works. Hopefully we can become reasonably confident navigating in order to take us to the longer rallies in Europe. Rallies, like London to Lisbon, for example. If you look at the history and some of the absolutely, fascinating videos, yeah, they really whet the appetite.

Chris Papaioannou and Tim Sawyer, 1983 Arrive + Drive VW Golf GTi

Chris, who is from Canada is on his very first rally and has enjoyed the experience so far.

“Actually, I’m not doing too bad, with my amazing mentor Tim over here, but it’s lots of fun, very exciting, but there was a lot of information at first. Once you get on the road, once you start driving around, then it all falls into place a little bit, yeah, except for the tricks that they do, like the triangles! I am going to come back for more though, 100%!”.

“I am a little bit nervous about the actual rally. It seems it could be a little bit more intense than today, but I'll review it again tonight, make my notes and go from there.”