The Jitty goes Rally Driving

The Junior Rally driving experience (Youth into Motorsport) at Silverstone is a unique experience that enables even 10 year olds to enjoy the excitement of rally driving with no need for a driver’s license. You’re faced with the RST (Rally Sport Trainer) which, whilst bizarre in appearance is certainly a blast to drive!

It’s fast, it’s fun and it’s exhilarating! It may seem like something set aside for only the confident and daring, but trust me this couldn’t be further from the truth! I’m a shy person that doesn’t usually enjoy things like this out of sheer self-consciousness but after the second lap you’ll have forgotten anybody else is watching you’ll just be having too much fun to notice!

The day began with an early start, some 5:40 in the morning! But despite seeing this ridiculous hour in the morning, I definitely wasn’t tired after my first experience behind the wheel. After finding Silverstone and struggling to navigate our way to the rally location, we received a short briefing of the activities we should expect to follow: – the first driving session, a quiz, second driving session, and a presentation. Dave, the organiser of the event for us and the co-driver Pete were of the short and sweet variety when it came to talking – they gave you all you needed to know with a couple of jokes in between.

After being lined up in height order and assigned a number (I was last luckily, not first) we had to wait our turn. Whilst the driver in front of you is still whizzing their way around the track, it’s soon your turn to get ready to drive. Just to warn you, due to health and safety requirements it is necessary to sport a rather sexy hair net and helmet, so leave your vanity at the door!

It was, as James (Jitty head honcho) predicted, when I was helped into my helmet that the reality of the situation really hit me. I was about to be allowed behind the wheel of a rally car…! Scary stuff! I was excited, but fear was the predominant emotion! After witnessing several drivers before me spinning out of control around corners, and me being my usual rather wimpy and reserved self I guess I should have expected the nerves really.

Now for the surprising part… Pete has no dual controls! In fact, the only control over the car he has is a little red switch which completely kills the engine! So, you are in effect, left to drive on your own. I haven’t even driven without dual controls in a normal car let alone a rally car! Though I must add, no knowledge of gear changing is necessary as the co-driver puts you straight into second gear and you stay in that gear throughout – which whilst it may seem odd to the drivers amongst us, I guess makes sense in that it would take a lot longer to teach all of them to change gear as well as drive around a track.

I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to hear Pete over the RST’s engine but fortunately BR Racing must have considered this when creating the rally experience, and have handily fitted little microphones into the helmet for easy communication.

Once in the car, I was quickly briefed and then within minutes I was driving off around the track, though not quite at high speed! Many of those before me had whizzed off and seemed like naturals, me on the other hand, well, I chugged along for the first few laps.

What happens on the first few laps is you drive at a comfortable speed whilst Pete tells you which direction to turn to make your way through the cones, and also prompts you when to brake on the straight. He also tells you to speed up, but that was probably only with me since I was driving so excruciatingly slow which still seemed much too fast for me! Once you seem to have gotten the hang of it, you’re left to it, only prompted if you forget something or miss a cone.

Admittedly, sometimes it is hard to understand where the track is, though everyone else seemed to have no trouble with this, so perhaps it’s just because I’m a little simple.

After a while my nerves melted away; well… I guess in reality they froze away, as it was absolutely freezing cold, especially whilst whizzing around a track! It’s interesting seeing your confidence grow, and it’s much more fun once the fear has disappeared! Just as I’d started to have extreme fun, driving at what I considered a very fast speed it was time to pull back in and let everyone else have their second sessions.

Once I was out of the car I found that I was rather twitchy and shaky, whether this was to do with the cold, exhilaration and adrenaline or all three I’m not quite sure, but I couldn’t stop smiling!

After finishing the first session, we were handed a quiz to complete. I was much too lazy to run around finding the answers to them, but most of the younger participants found it to be an interesting and competitive diversion from waiting until their next turn to drive.

The second session was fantastic. I slipped back into the confidence level I was at before, and then somehow seemed to increase! That’s when I started putting my foot down and zipping along at a thrilling speed! It’d hard to describe the feeling you get when you’re in control of something which seems so fast, but to put it simply: it’s amazing.

The last lap we completed was timed, and unfortunately many of the people who knew this was happening found themselves putting their foot down that little bit more and spinning around out of control on the grass – thus finding their time much worse than if they’d stayed at a comfortable speed! This was then compared to a time from the previous driving session, to allow for analysis of personal achievement and improvement. Finally at the end of the day it was all tallied up, and though you were allowed to keep your score to yourself, it was pretty much assumed that you wouldn’t! Prizes were award to the three drivers with the fastest lap time – a little plaque for the beginner and DVD’s for second and third prize. Much to their disappointment, prizes weren’t awarded for the top scores of the quiz!

Now, if you happen to be doing this any time soon ensure to bring parents as the next part of the day seemed great fun! It was time to let the parents loose behind the RST! After they’d completed their time sessions, their final lap time was recorded as well and they were also tallied up at the final. Now no doubt, comparisons between parent and child occurred, and how amusing it would be if you beat your parents’ time!

Overall, rally driving at Silverstone is a brilliant and thrilling experience, one not to be missed and one which you may have to subtly hint at for a next birthday perhaps!

We'd also like to say a big thank you to Dave and Pete at BR Racing for giving us this opportunity!

Click here to visit BR Racing's website