5 top reasons why you MUST visit Billing!
Land Rover Monthly is extremely proud to be in association with this year’s Billing Off Road Show, but besides meeting the team behind your favourite magazine there are a lot of other reasons why you should save the date…
A WEEKEND packed full of 4x4 fun for all of the family – whether you’re knee high to a grasshopper or closer in age to the Series I – there is no excuse why you shouldn’t be booking the date in your diary, which by the way is Saturday 26 to Sunday 27 June, 2021. Here are our top 5 reasons why you should be coming to the Billing Off Road Show.
1 Show and Tell
The Land Rover Monthly team will be presenting a 90-minute ‘Show and Tell’ event each day of the show, whereby the owners of some very rare and special Land Rovers will drive their vehicles on to a stage and talk about them to the editor and our various expert contributors. It’s new for 2021 and set to be a highlight of the show – trust us, you won’t want to miss it.
2 Best off-road course in the UK
In fact, that should be pluralised as there are not one but two off-road courses at Billing. The Lakeside Course offers a mix of mud, water and steep terrains across 100 acres of beautiful countryside including gravel pit lakes, with an abundance of wildlife.
We love it for many reasons including the four water features: a short dyke crossing with steep banks that a standard Land Rover can negotiate with cut-outs to clear the tow bars, an island crossing which feels as though you are on a real life safari, and two larger water features in another lake, one cutting 30 metres across a corner of the lake, the other a stretch of water over 100 metres long, making you feel as though you could float off at any moment!
And then for the more hardcore among you, you’ll probably share our delight in the varying terrain on offer from the silt beds, camel humps, curved side slopes, tree stumps and log piles, but best of all is the infamous Mud Run (just search for it on Youtube) which has seen thousands of vehicles and embarrassed drivers being pulled out throughout the years. This 30-metre stretch may look simple to the novice, but with varying depths from a foot to six feet of homemade Billing sludge, both luck and skill is required to accomplish this obstacle. Pedestrians are strongly encouraged to spectate with this area of the course providing particularly entertaining. It is a ten-minute stroll from the showground.
The Lakeside Course opens on Saturday 26 and Sunday 27 June and costs £20 (when booked in advance online by a ticket holder) or £25 at the gate and includes two laps which takes approximately one hour (5 miles in total), and a third lap for an extra tenner.
The Riverside Course is the original course built and designed (and still run together with his wife Sarah) by Land Rover enthusiast Richard Arrowsmith 30 years ago – it is a real slice of Land Rover history and if it’s not already it should be on everyone’s wish list to complete. It is built on the banks of the River Nene, overlooking the Billing Aquadrome, and the tracks wind steeply up and down the banks and amongst the trees, giving you a real greenlane feeling and providing one and a half miles of pure hair-raising excitement.
It is open on Friday June 26 only, ticket holders can book online for £15, or on the gate for £20 but don’t be disappointed if it’s full! The price includes two laps and a third lap for £10 on the course. There is a by-pass option available for all major obstacles and there will be experienced marshals on site.
3 Subscribe to LRM now and get a free Billing ticket
Yes, you read that right! To celebrate our continued association with the show, anyone that pre-books their LRM subscription ahead of the show will get a free day visitor ticket, which will be emailed to you before the show, plus you will get the first five issues of LRM all for just £15. That means a saving of up £25, which you can put towards your spending money – just follow the link to find out more: https://bit.ly/3i6ly7b .
4 Trade stands and auto jumble exhibitors
And talking of spending money, you’ll need it as there are more companies selling their products than ever before! In fact, there will be over 100 trade and auto jumble stands, where you can find Britain’s leading off-road specialists in engine tuning, suspension, expedition kit, styling and adventure tours, as well as the opportunity to find that elusive part you’ve been searching for in the huge auto jumble area.
No show is complete without trade stands and auto jumble exhibitors and you won’t be left disappointed by what’s on offer at Billing this year.
A safe and Covid-19 compliant show
Sadly, due to Covid-19, last year’s Billing Off Road Show didn’t go ahead. With the safety of visitors paramount to the organisers it would have been irresponsible to hold the show. All online bookings were automatically transferred to 2021, but ticket holders had the option to be refunded.
Providing certain conditions are met – such as the vaccine rollout going to plan, the aim is for all restrictions to be lifted by June 21, whereupon all legal limits on social contact will be removed and there will be no legal limits on the number of people who can attend events.
Stage four obviously requires three other conditions to be met: namely vaccines are sufficiently reducing the number of people dying with the virus or needing hospital treatment; infection rates do not risk a surge in hospital admissions and new coronavirus variants do not fundamentally change the risk of lifting restrictions.
To that end, obviously the organisers will be keeping a close eye on the lifting of the rules and will be fully compliant.