The Jurassic International Rally 2019
After nearly 15 months of meetings, site visits, preparation and general hard work by the International Rally Committee the 2019 Rally has come and gone. The weekend was a huge success and as a Group we would like to thank every single one of you who attended. We hope you enjoyed your stay in Dorset and we hope we did the National Club and Committee proud.
Rob Stanley's view of the 2019 International Rally.
The Jurassic Rally 2019..... we did it
After over a year of planning by my amazing Rally Committee, the Jurassic Rally was upon us. As they say..... No going back and we were determined to give everyone a true taste of Dorset, for our first International Rally for exactly 20 years. A few of us from the 1999 Wessex Rally were on board once again, either as committee or as part of our site team. All twenty years older, but we managed it. Before even getting on site, last minute jobs were needed. We found that over hanging branches at the entrance of the site were too low for our vintage double decker bus. Luckily, a long armed chainsaw, borrowed from work, sorted that out quite quickly. Parking restrictions was also set up so that our bus could get through safely, much to the annoyance of a few of the local residents. The offer to visit the Rally on Sunday worked well though and many of them came along with great interest in our cars.
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Left: The Rugby Club on our first site visit. February 2018
We learned from past experience, it was becoming more likely that we will be having early arrivals on the Thursday before. So a quick message to the Rugby Club managed to secure an extra day for us to set up. Our Dorset Group is very close and active Group so it didn't surprise me that a large team of volunteers were on site Wednesday morning ready to begin building up a Rally site. Skip delivery, marquees, signs and the camping area were all set up quickly and with a very relaxed feel to it too.
Wednesday 22nd May 2019. D Day minus one
10.00 am and the Rally Committee have descended on Swanage and Wareham Rugby Club. Rally Control went up very quickly and we soon had the start of an entertaining weekend. However.................. ..... putting up the 2 Club marquees without any instructions proved to be an altogether more interesting proposition. Fortunately the 3rd marquee belonged to Stan and his was up within minutes. Yes, that is how the whole morning was spent. We could have made a Carry On film that morning. Ooh matron......... Luckily Ian Aggas was on hand to help and we manged to sort out the other two. Oh, hang on, I have just found some instructions in the bottom of this bag........... Len, have you seen the yellow end with the two blue stripes? I think Kim has it, next to the green end with one yellow stripe. No Kim, that says roof !........... But it's got red tape on the end, so I thought it was a leg? No Kim all the legs are clearly marked with two yellow stripes and one blue one. Except that bit which says centre.......... Here we go lads. All together one at a time. Hang on the middle bit is sagging...............
Above: Setting up gallery
Something not quite right here............... again. Men will work, ladies will watch............ Alan, trying to pull the roof sections down won't make it fit any better. Honestly ......... Kim having fun with his toggles. Question. How many people does it take to put up a marquee. Answer A 30 or answer A 35? Well they are up. And surprisingly stayed up all weekend. Oh hang on. The cake stall is in the wrong place. Time to move the marquee again lads.........