Most people think of gravel rallies as the sort of thing you'd see on the TV with the WRC (World Rally Championship). They would expect to see the big four wheel drive cars flying through the dust on the stages.  Very few would expect to see a 1400cc 8 valve VW polo estate but that's exactly the car my driver, Charles Blair "Chuck" and myself used for the RSAC Scottish Rally at Dumfries, Scotland on Saturday the 27th of June 2009 - Part of the Scottish Rally Championship.

Covering six rally stages in the little blue and white polo nicknamed the bread van, was quite an adventure and a lot of fun! Chuck willingly took me on knowing it was my first time out on gravel and in the forest, but also being a co-driver himself he knew that you have to
start somewhere and that only happens when someone takes a chance on you. We started off the day bright and early with the no problems with the car.

We kept to our times throughout the rally and the wee bread van got us all the way to the finish, not quite in the same state as what we had started though. In one of the earlier stages we hit a pheasant which took out the passengers head light but in the weather we was having we didn't need head lights; more of an industrial sized fan to keep us cool in the heat. In the final stage we over shot a corner to land in a ditch, at that moment my heart sank. Did this mean it was the end of the rally for us after we were so close to finishing? Thanks to Chuck's driver skill we managed to get back out and the car was still running so that was the main thing.

We successfully finished the rally to pick up an award for first in class and 21 seconds ahead of the second place car. Got to give Chuck a huge well done for getting us back out of the ditch again and keeping us in the game, had a great day and winning first in class shows that taking a chance can sometimes be worth it.

By Marieanne Gray

Photos are courtesy of www.rally-photo.com