There are three main types of competitive historic road rallies; daylight regularity with special tests, long-distance jogularity runs such as Land's End to John O'Groats, and the classic night rally. The Jaycee rally, run by the Amman and District Motor Club, gives an example of the three main flavours without requiring any special equipment or car preparation. A pair of complete beginners can turn up with a road-going car, take advantage of the excellent tuition, and have a memorable weekend. We went there in my SE5a, having failed by a headgasket to get the Sabre ready in time.
The morning started with a regularity run on a route chosen so that navigation was easy, and we could concentrate on trying to drive the car at the specified average speed. We started off at 26 mph, then a few miles along the road at an intermediate time control in a lay-by a marshal signed our time card and sent us off again with a new speed of 24 mph. At each such stop we would reset the odometer and zero the stopwatch, and set off again at some new speed. The art of regularity is adjusting the driving speed to allow for bends, road junctions, and even taking wrong turns, so that when you pull up at the next secret regularity time control you are never early, and hopefully only a few seconds late.
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