29th March 2024

13th January 2016 – Mark Broadbent and Mike Fox

After navigating for the Airedale and Pennine Motor Car Club Chairman John Rhodes on the previous round of the Skipton Trophy Scatter Championship I thought it was fantastic and decided I would have a go on the other side of the car, but this time in my own Suzuki! I somehow managed to get Mike Fox to navigate for me and I put an entry in as soon as I could.

We met at the Hunters Inn, just north of Pool and got our map coordinates at 7.30pm.  Mike was very organised and together we plotted the forty points within around fifteen minutes, then out to the car and a sprint to Bramhope just south of where we started.

The plan was to go clockwise around the pub and catch as many points as we could, however when we got to Ikley our plan became useless!  Although we were told the A59 was shut, we were not told North Moor Road leading off the A59 was shut which would have seen us collect another four points along that route alone!  So we had to back track anti clockwise picking up scores which we originally thought we too far away.

Along the way we came across a startled deer which ran with the direction of the car clocking an impressive thirty five miles per hour!  Perhaps deer power might be better than horse power in the future!  Some great roads and very enjoyable driving meant that the two hours soon passed by and we were back at the starting point with ten checkpoints in total.

Nine crews started and nine crews finished meaning we slotted in… ninth!  But a top ten position and a first in class (we were the only ones in semi expert!) which I don’t think is bad for a first time outside of an autotest!

I am not sure if I will do more scatter rallies however if the opportunity arose I could very easily be tempted!  There are two events in the season run by Ilkley Motor Club so I could be out there soon.

I would like to say a big thanks to Mike Fox for navigating with me… it cannot have been easy but he was excellent in calling the corners as well as directing me round places I did not know at all!

Mark Broadbent