The amount of thought and planning that goes to make a successful event was abundantly evident in the case of this oversubscribed restricted night rally promoted by the Sevenoaks and District Motor Club. Skilfully embraced in the deft organization of the rally, competitors found a military combined operation whereby special section time controls were operated under the enthusiastic command of Captain Luckett, RA, efficiently supported by SO officers and other ranks of a Territorial Army Light Anti-Aircraft unit and a section of the Royal Corps of Signals equipped with a number of radio-controlled vehicles.

The field of 75 cars, leaving Woolfe Garage, Brasted, Kent, at minute intervals from 9 pm, set off on a section with a generous time allowance to a point east of Tunbridge Wells. From here the rally exploded into the tough event it soon proved to be, when competitors were given the first marked map (1-inch OS 183) bearing 24 route checks and three time controls delineating a tortuous route through a labyrinth of “yellow roads” towards Eastbourne, then westerly near Lewes. The road book gave time allowances between route checks and where manned, as many were, the route checks became timing points. Subsidiary road books were provided for the special sections.

No self-respecting rally traverses this area without incorporating the well-surfaced network of “white roads” amid Pevensey Marshes. Clerk of the course M T Godfrey brought his military support into full operation by using Pevensey Marshes for a series of six short, sharp special sections as an auxiliary on the main route, sealed under radio-controlled timing “to the previous 10 seconds” by an R.T. system known as “The Master and his Slaves”. From a master transmitter, not even on the rally route, time was transmitted at 10-second intervals to Slave receivers at all special section time controls.

From the end of the marked map sections a subsidiary route card bearing map references directed competitors to the supper stop at Shoreham-by-Sea through further route checks and time controls. At the supper stop results of the earlier part of the rally were already on display; having been passed through by radio ahead of competitors!

It was clear this was not to be a “clean sheet rally”. Crews had found the going highly competitive and already several cars were “presumed lost”. While rallying on the Brighton map the mystic attraction of water proved too great for S G Leete’s Magnette and M Mobsby’s TR2; both vehicles indulged in some moonlight bathing at a most unusual place, and E D Davis’s Sprite had made two excursions of a less serious nature.

Most drivers reaching the supper stop will have, henceforth, a high regard for the right-hand bend at 182/193093. As we came along in our new Renault Gordini, lying second to David Seigle-Morris’s TR3A, his tyre marks aiming straight at the bank were still smoking - possibly due to the smoke, we found it necessary to add a further set of marks and minutes later Stephen Clipston admits his VW would have added to the rubber had he not seen the Chitty Zephyr reversing off the bank! By morning that bank could tell quite a story!

After supper, a short “silent zone section” led competitors away from Shoreham to resume this redoubtable Kent rally with a good-surfaced “white road” crossing off the South Downs and a north-westerly cross-country route skirting Billingshurst towards Dunsfold. Crossing the Downs we had a few seconds lead on Seigle-Morris’s TR, however, at a point where the road deviated from straight we found it expedient to take an escape road only to find to the rear the TR in close proximity involuntarily playing “follow the leader”.

At the Dunsfold control, competitors were issued with a marked map (1-inch OS 169). Marked map sections have a characteristic of looking simple yet proving difficult, but when the map is the uncommon uncoloured outline edition panic sets in and navigators have to be very careful they do not direct their drivers along what would turn out to be “blue roads’, albeit watery ones! Seventeen route checks marked on this map adopted a “lazy-U” shaped route turning at Allan, passing near Farnham, to finish the strictly business part of the rally on the Hogs Back.

Meanwhile, a battle for the leadership of the rally had been in progress since the supper stop between SeigIe-Morris’s TR and our Gordini, sometimes one in the pole position sometimes the other. Neither succeeded in making any impression on the other, both being the only cars clean since supper.

During the 15 minutes’ break at the Hogs Back, before the gentle run to breakfast at Gatwick Airport, we learnt of the highly organized Highway Code observance checks that had been operating by radio-controlled military personnel and witnessed a penalty report coming in over the radio, ahead of a competitor somewhere back along the route. Had a few competitors realized beforehand that this highly organized detection worked so thoroughly, they would not have collected the 300 marks penalty for carelessness concerning the Highway Code, nor one in particular who excluded himself for two indiscretions.

1. D SeigIe-Morrls/O. Kerr (Triumph TR3A); .45 marks lost.

2. L Roberts/I. Rogers (Renault Gordini); 47.

3. S Clipston/King (Volkswagen); 49.

4. P Noad (Volkswagen); 58.

Best 7oaks: Manbes/Salem (Ford Consul) 141.

Teams Awards: Seigle-Morris (TR3A); Noad (VW); Reeves (TR3A) 493.