My first live experience of rallying was on a cold November’s night in Hamsterley forest watching the 1996 Network Q RAC rally.
I think this was the first time that the World Rally Cars (new for the upcoming 1997 season) were eligible to make their international debut and my first experience of seeing major names such as Stig Blomqvist and Armin Schwarz battle for position. At the time, I wasn’t aware that there were local motor clubs and of the benefits of being a member, so I dragged my mum along with me for company (I was a 17 year old girl by the way).
We found a spot near a hairpin bend which was full to bursting with spectators. Although we were stood in a cold dark forest, I can remember being blown away by the atmosphere, it was freezing cold and I had already lost the feeling in my fingers and toes, snow and ice covering the ground, but everyone was having a good time. I enjoyed learning that hearing a whistle meant a car was coming, listening to the marshals constantly telling people to get in the safe zones and NOT on the forest trail, and the flashes from camera’s and cheers as the cars came past.
My love for motorsport was cemented that night, also possibly my future as, on the way back to the car park I slipped over on the ice (keeping my newly bought hot dog safe and clear in the air of course) and was helped up by a kindly stranger.
Six months later, after joining my local motor club and recounting the story one night, it turns out the kindly stranger was likely a member of the club that remembered helping someone up after slipping over near that very same hairpin. We’ll never know for sure, but that could have been our first meeting – and we’ve now been married for 13 years and counting.
Sally Peacock
Memory added on December 19, 2012
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