Navigational Road Rallying has taken place for many years, mostly at night, and was at its strongest in the 1970’s. However, as roads became more crowded and cars more powerful, they became less viable. Other forms of events have taken their place such as treasure hunts, but they did not contain a time element.

 

So a more sedate form of rallying which has become known as Regularity Rallying has taken its place where standard cars can be used, at affordable costs. These events tend to take place during daytime and the object is to travel a set route through the countryside at varying speeds set by the organisers, usually set at an average of between 15 and 30 mph, set over differing distances. There has been an increase in demand for this type of event and nowadays various levels of Regularity Rallies exist. They start at club level with our Sunday half-day clubman’s type event which usually finishes at a pub.  Once teams are more experienced, they move on to whole day rallies and then onto full-on events over several days and covering many hundreds of miles over challenging terrain.

 

The key skills for the navigators are to navigate the correct route and maintain the pre-set average speed over each section. At our club level, we publish the navigation a few days before the event, so that navigators have time to plot the route well in advance and concentrate on map reading and timekeeping on the day. Drivers need to adopt a smooth driving technique, to achieve that average speed. Timing is to the second, so accuracy of navigation and timekeeping are of the essence. Competitors are penalised for arriving at the undisclosed controls early or late, as well as missing Controls. Teamwork between driver and navigator is required to achieve this, and this comes with practice. Blackpalfrey Motor Club of Kent run its half-day series as well as The Hughes Historic Rally - a round of the HRCR National Championship.