A Novice Trial 2026

HERO-ERA’s first event of the year got underway in earnest this morning, at the Hellidon Lakes Resort in Northamptonshire. The majority of crews had arrived on Friday evening, and taken part in an introductory classroom session, but the real fun was to begin today, with a full day of classroom sessions, punctuated with time out on the road to put the theory into practice.

This event is aimed squarely at the novices, with 50 pairs of them in total, though there were some familiar faces, either trying out life on the other side of the car, or perhaps along for some extra tuition to bolster their current experience.

Whilst there is no real competition until tomorrow, the day began as all events do, with scrutineering. Most machines were passed fit, with one or two needing some extra attention to get through the checks, which is of course all part of the learning process. You could tell there were some newbies about, with the amount of enthusiasm there was for leaning on the loud pedal for the noise level check. It’s fair to say the poor scrutineer was getting covered in clouds of oil smoke, as drivers gunned the motors with gusto. Perhaps they thought the object of the exercise was to have the loudest car!

The first classroom session followed, covering some of the basic elements the crews might find out on the road, with explanations of the different boards they might see, and the bare bones of the time card, as well as a quick lesson on the best way for the navigator to control their driver, with the suggested technique of using the pointy end of a pencil to garner their attention. No doubt those drivers in the room who have swapped places with their navigators for the weekend were relishing the prospect of being in command for once.

Out onto the road then, and a chance to experience navigating with tulips on a 27-mile loop in the rolling hills of Northamptonshire, that somehow managed to avoid the worst of HS2. There were a pair of practice regularities, offering the opportunity to get to grips with reg starts, correctly navigating junctions and encounters with marshals on timing points. There was also the first encounter with that classic rally route trick of ensuring that any triangle junctions were driven as the road book instructed, and plenty were flummoxed by this, resulting in subsequent trip readings being wrong and the potential for tulips to be followed at the wrong point in the road – in other words, getting lost!

This is all part of the rally life, and a hint of the methods employed by route planners to catch out the unwary, though the dastardliest levels of tulip trickery won’t be unleashed on our crews this weekend, that would miss the point somewhat. Back at base, and there was a walking test to tackle, which is exactly what it says on the tin. A mockup of a test is followed on foot, with the driver and navigator pairs having to navigate the cones correctly, stop in stop boxes and stop at the correct point at the finish. A familiarization at walking pace, before they are let of the leash and drive a test at speed for real. A touch monotonous perhaps, though some crews decided to introduce some jeopardy by running and others enjoyed making car noises and miming the use of car controls – whatever makes you happy I suppose. One crew even managed to hit a cone, so I would suggest standing well clear of their test run tomorrow.

After all that excitement there was a short break, followed by more time in the classroom, just to ensure nobody peaked too soon. With the sun breaking the excited crews were released once more onto the roads of the county, this time for another short loop, but with the difficulty increasing a touch. It must be said that the route this afternoon was extremely picturesque, especially in the early spring sunshine, though I imagine that the drivers and navigators, especially the navigators, had precious little time to enjoy the view, working hard to implement all that they had learned.

There were also plenty of international crews that had the added difficulty of driving on the wrong (right) side of the road. We have people that have travelled especially from the US, and even from China, as well as from Europe, with 9 different nationalities represented on the entry list. There is also a plethora of different cars on the start list as well, with everything from Bentleys and pre-war Ford Coupes to AC Aceca’s, Alfa’s, Mercs, Lancia’s, VW’s and even a DeLorean – though with the time travelling capabilities of that car, I wouldn’t fancy trying to find them if they get lost.

The day closed with another classroom session and debrief, and tomorrow the competitors can put it all into practice against the clock, with a mini rally containing a smattering of regularities and a test. No doubt some will be doing their best to score well, but the most important thing for all of them is to enjoy themselves and not take the timing element too seriously – this is supposed to be fun, after all.