Curtain up on a busy UK HERO-ERA season

The traditional start to the UK-based HERO-ERA rally season, ‘A Novice Trial’ brings the curtain up on a 10-event UK-based programme (excluding international rallies) incorporating the HERO Challenge Championship, the Flying Scotsman, the Summer Trial, Rally for the Ages, the Scottish Malts, the RAC Rally of the Tests and LeJog making a welcome return in December.

‘A Novice Trial’ is about bringing new people into the sport and combining training with event practice as much as it is about bringing fresh young talent into the historic rallying. The Bob Rutherford Historic Rally Scholarship for Young Navigators is specifically designed to encourage and develop young talent as the 2025 winner, Miles Fieldhouse (16), from Ambleside in the Lake District, begins his programme of four fully funded HERO-ERA events with combined Motorsport UK selected courses in their Academy programme where Miles will receive additional governing body support to help shape his craft. For his first event, he will be navigated by his father in HERO-ERA’s Arrive & Drive MGB.

Clerk of the Course for ‘A Novice Trial’, Andy Pullan, explained the event in more detail and what is waiting for the eager crews. “This is our is introductory event which we organise in a similar way to skiing with grading of the slopes. This is classified as one of our green events designed to bring beginners into the sport, give them a baseline level of knowledge, and experience a mix of classroom-based opportunities to learn, but then also immediately apply them out on the road.

“So, it's not just about learning what you should or shouldn't do, it's also getting the opportunity to try and apply it and hopefully make some of those mistakes, but learn from them for future events. Because the best way to learn is putting it all into practice and making the inevitable mistakes.

“Looking at the entry list, there's a mix of people on ‘A Novice Trial’ this year. Some people will do a couple of events, and then think, actually, that's been really useful, but I'd like to go back to basics and just really nail those individual things we want to get right, as well as complete newbies to the sport. Those ‘fresh crews’ see the benefit in spending a couple of days in the Northampton countryside learning those basics before going onto big trips like the Badawï Trail, the Gaucho Trail, or just taking on the one-day HERO Challenges. It's designed to be useful from both points of view.”

As our second ever winner of the Bob Rutherford Scholarship, it's great to have Miles Fieldhouse with us on ‘A Novice Trial’. He's doing it with his dad, which is a great thing for those two to be together. This will be their first taste of regularity rallying in the flesh, after doing various Targa and Historic events together, so this will be a perfect opportunity for Miles to get introduced to the sport, to see how it differs from the other rallying that he's done. And you know what kids can be like at this stage, they're just absolute sponges!

So I'm sure he will be taking lots in and will increase his knowledge massively over the weekend.”

The classroom come practical road sessions will be divided up between the two days and one evening as Senior Competition Manager at HERO-ERA Andy Pullan continued setting the scene; “First thing on the Friday, there's a classroom-based session. Then on the Saturday, there are two more classroom-based sessions, with two loops of around 30 miles where crews will drive out locally in the Hellidon Lakes area of Northamptonshire, which is really scenic, but most importantly, they're actually good and generally quiet roads.

“We've tried our best to find the local triangles where we can catch out the unwary here and there, and then this Sunday, it's about the 100-mile competitive mini rally route of ‘A Novice Trial’ with various tests and regularities along the way so crews can try lots of different formats of navigation. It will allow drivers to push the car hard and the navigator test their skills on the tests. There is a lot to learn with regularities, but you can also make and lose just as much time on tests which can be frustrating if you if you don't know what you're doing, but that’s where we will be helping the entrants as much as we can in the classroom sessions.

“Everyone can then look forward to the prize giving after the actual ‘A Novice Trial’ on Sunday when we will reward the winners and commiserate with those who maybe didn’t do so well.”

The awards will go to those who adapt and learn as much as possible, but it’s not just teams from the UK who are anxious to learn. There are two crews from China, one from the US, Switzerland, and Ireland, with a navigator from Canada looking for tips from his experienced driver Tim Sawyer as well.

There are racers who are looking to convert to rallying and aim for the bigger events such as developer and hotelier Ryck Turner with Angie Barber navigating in their 1928 Bentley 4 ½ Litre, the oldest car in the rally. Another racing driver, John Dixon, is with Myles Castaldini, also from a racing family, in their Lancia Monte Carlo.

There is a record seven HERO-ERA Arrive & Drive rally cars hired out for this rally. This is the convenient way to go rallying where a fully prepared rally car waits ready to go with all the relevant paperwork and insurance provided and is a popular a way to compete. The choices of A&D car remain popular too. Rikki and Russell Watson are in the BMW 1602, Philip and Marianne Leibundgut (CH) are in the quick and nimble Alfa Romeo GTV 1750 with Tim Sawyer and Chris Papaioannou (CA) in the original ‘pocket rocket.’ VW Golf GTi Mk 1.

Lei and Zihan Zhu (CN) have chosen the classic British Triumph TR4, whilst Yao Pan and Xinran Liu are driving another classic British sports car, the 1950s MGA Coupe. To complete the A&D list at number 38 is the Fiat 124 Spider which finished 6^th on the ultra-competitive RAC Rally of the Tests, Martin Paterson and Charlotte Crowther are the crew.

The mix of entries includes the Irish team of Diarmaid and Kate Boland in their Lancia Fulvia, the marque with World Rally Championship heritage. Simon and Vicky Parker’s Land Rover is more Camel Trophy than WRC, but none the less, a sturdy platform from which to learn more about historic rallying. Let the learning commence!