JACK BENYON

NATIONAL RALLYING EDITOR “A Cambrian miracle is on track”

Rally organisers have been in the limelight in this country ever since the MSA Safety Regulations came in last year. There’s no doubt that it is harder than ever for organisers to make an event viable financially and for it to run to and adhere to the correct regulations. I for one wouldn’t be raising my hand too quickly to take on the job of clerk of the course, for example.

The recent loss of the Tempest was when this was really hammered home to me, one of the only (if not the only) major forest rallies in the south, one many look forward too. I remember speaking to the 2015 winner Rob Swann, and listening to the pain in his voice that a rally such as the Tempest had perished.

With all that in mind, read the story to your left and tell me that the Cambrian organisers don’t deserve some sort of acknowledgement.

First of all, let me dispel a few of you who will say that the Cambrian gets more funding, better backing and a larger organising team. A few of those things may or may not be true, but apply that to the scale at which they are working and it becomes irrelevant anyway.

The team spent months organising last year’s October rally in Llandudno – the event’s 60th anniversary. Despite a large number of road miles and a relatively spread out route and sevice for a BTRDA event, it was still in the top three in terms of organisation of the events I attended.

Once the 60th was out of the way (believe me Cambrian organisers, MN knows how savage 60ths can be) most of the team then set about organising Rally GB, the final round of the World Rally Championship. Let’s not forget about the magnitude of that task.

Then after GB, full steam ahead with the Cambrian for February. And here’s the biggest part for me. Over Christmas and New Year, many of the team were out in the forests getting things prepared. These are mostly volunteers giving up perhaps the one time of year we all come together and spend time with our families in modern society. And yet there they were in the likes of Dolgellau, getting muddy while I was sipping a nice Single malt and watching The Grinch.

So – organisers of the Cambrian – bravo. I do acknowledge that we are suffering in terms of rally organisation, but in a time of struggle it’s always nice to look up and see someone doing it successfully. Although the event doesn’t go ahead until February, I have complete confidence in the organisers and the great job they have done so far.

Now we need young and budding volunteers to look at what the Cambrian has done, and follow the lead. Step forward, the future is depending on you.