Phew! What a night the Kent Rally was. The weather was very cold but thank goodness not icy and the roads were dryer than they had been for a while in that part of Kent.  Ralph and I enjoyed marshalling our sector without incident (for us) although we did stop to help the unfortunate crew from Southampton who had rolled their little Peugeot just outside Leigh.  Thankfully they were both okay.
Now when I said without incident for us, I was of course lying!  After Colin Billings and Andy Kilby had been through as course closing car we got back in the Vectra to get off to the next TC we were marshalling at.  Unfortunately the Vectra’s battery had gone flat.  Oh B****er!  In the middle of nowhere!  We had left the side lights on for probably about an hour and a half and that was that.  We decided we had enough lane ahead of us to bump start the car, but were having serious trouble pushing the car out of the gateway where it was parked because it was very rutted. Who should happen along but Mark Dawson and Daren Hall (who laughed like drains because they thought we were stuck in the mud).  They were clearing up our sector and we tried not to look too relieved. (Act cool! It’s all under control) Mark had jump leads in the Puma…....Wow! So organised!….and in no time at all we had the Vectra running again. Our thanks to you guys. When we finally got to breakfast (we also went to the wrong hotel! We had a nap for about 45 mins in the Thistle Hotel lobby...oops how embarrassing….as neither of us knew the name or whereabouts of the other one) we heard that the Chairman had had a tangle with a suicidal fox and the front spoiler of his M3 was rearranged.  I don’t think the fox was too impressed either.
Well done to the eventual Rally winners and well done to Chin for another successful Kent.
Your committee however was less than impressed with the turnout of Marshals and once again we struggled with man power. Thanks to all those that made it, we couldn’t have done it without you.  You may find this a reoccurring theme within these pages this month.  We are obviously concerned that we will not have enough marshals for the Rally of Kent.  With 9 junctions and a start and finish crew, we need to find at least 32 volunteers.  If you get a call from either Chris Scudder or Iain Gibson, please don’t tell them you’ll let them know, give them an immediate “Yes no worries, count me in!”.  It is extremely demoralising for them to be giving up their time to phone round to have very few positive reactions.  Even better be proactive and call them. The majority of your committee are tied up with organising results and the actual stage running, we need you lot to come and be there in the thick of the action.  Don’t let us down.  You speedsters have no excuse, get out of your garages for one day and get your Marketing Machine qualification slip signed. Come on, support your club!
March sees the start of the Formula One season with the Aussie Grand Prix kicking off on 9th March.  Will the new rule changes give us the closer contests spectators want?  Who knows?  I suspect that Ferrari will once again be in the zone this year, judging by comments in the media on the winter test sessions and McLaren and the others will be following in Schumacher’s wake for at least the first part of the season.
Now the WRC is a different kettle of fish,  With three rallies gone and a little rest before New Zealand, it is looking extremely exciting.  The Turkish Rally was unbelievably rough and sorted the “delicate flowers” from the “bit of roughs”.  Some of the stages made the Safari Rally look like a Sunday treasure hunt.  Have any of you checked out the WRC website?  It is excellent, giving times and live updates as the drivers progress through each stage, you can even check out the split times.  Fascinating high tech stuff.  (Err better take off my anorak now and get out my thermos flask!)
Finally a reminder that, if you haven’t already done so, you can register for the Marketing Machine Speed Championship by downloading the regs and registration form off the 7Oaks website  www.sevenoaksmotorclub.com.  They are there all through the year for you to check up on or download.

See you on the Rally of Kent.

Dawn Travers