It's a Friday night and I'm actually being fitted to the co-drivers seat of a stage rally car.
In the immortal words of David Byrne and Talking Heads. "How did I get here?"
Well, about a month ago I received a Facebook message from fellow TCRC member and stage rally driver, Dan Little.
"So, having volunteered at Ojibwe, do you have any interest in co-driving in a stage rally?"
(I'm sure he had probably forgotten that a couple of times I've mentioned my dream of being a co-driver of a stage rally car in this blog.)
To me, this was not an opportunity to be missed. I looked on it as some kind of reward, a treat if you like, for the blog post on volunteering at Ojibwe. That post is now the most popular one on this blog, and very well received by the rally community in Minnesota. I never got invited back to the Goodwood Revival when that post was the most popular, so I thought this was Karma evening itself out.
(I'm sure he had probably forgotten that a couple of times I've mentioned my dream of being a co-driver of a stage rally car in this blog.)
To me, this was not an opportunity to be missed. I looked on it as some kind of reward, a treat if you like, for the blog post on volunteering at Ojibwe. That post is now the most popular one on this blog, and very well received by the rally community in Minnesota. I never got invited back to the Goodwood Revival when that post was the most popular, so I thought this was Karma evening itself out.
We arranged a meeting and over some proper English cider and fish 'n' chips he explained the situation. He wasn't just looking for a co-driver for the upcoming rally but for the foreseeable future.
So, I could look on this as a "job interview". If I can cope, If Dan thinks I can cope, and we work well together, then the seat could very probably be mine.
Oh my giddy goodness.
Things very quickly took a whole new turn (L3/Cr, left three over crest in rally parlance). Getting the chance to experience something you dream of is one thing, to have the potential of turning that into something more permanent is a different kettle of fish altogether.
The first thing I had to do was get myself a Rally America co-drivers license. A task that is as simple as it says. Just fill in the form online, answer a medical questionnaire, send them some money and Bob's your Uncle! You are licensed. (Actually, the person in charge of licensing at Rally America is called Bob, but he's not my Uncle. That would be too much of a co-incidence).
With that, our entry into the Nemadji Trail Rally could become official.
So, I could look on this as a "job interview". If I can cope, If Dan thinks I can cope, and we work well together, then the seat could very probably be mine.
Oh my giddy goodness.
Things very quickly took a whole new turn (L3/Cr, left three over crest in rally parlance). Getting the chance to experience something you dream of is one thing, to have the potential of turning that into something more permanent is a different kettle of fish altogether.
The first thing I had to do was get myself a Rally America co-drivers license. A task that is as simple as it says. Just fill in the form online, answer a medical questionnaire, send them some money and Bob's your Uncle! You are licensed. (Actually, the person in charge of licensing at Rally America is called Bob, but he's not my Uncle. That would be too much of a co-incidence).
With that, our entry into the Nemadji Trail Rally could become official.
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| There it is. All official as of Nov. 1st. Dan Little and Ian Holmes in Car #958. |
As you can guess from the first lines of this post, we are a little way along from the official entry acceptance, but to cover everything would result in a huge unwieldy blog post, the very simple act of something as basic as actually getting into the car is worthy of mention. So you can be sure I'll be sharing more experiences in other blog posts as things develop and race day nears.
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