KDMC Members participate in a variety of Motorsport activities.
The information provided here gives an insight as to what is involved in these activities and the level of experience and/or equipment that is required to participate.

These events vary from small club-level events such as Grass Autotesting and Navigational Scatters up to National Level Stage Rally Events.

In addition to the above, many members assist events by Marshalling.
Please see the separate Marshalling page for more details.

Knutsford and District Motor Club is involved in most forms of rallying, this page is not intended as a full guide to rallying, but on the club’s involvement.

Historic Road Rallying
These events generally take place during daylight hours and comprise two main competitive elements. 1) Regularity road sections, on which crews have to maintain prescribed low average speeds, which are checked by means of secret intermediate timing points. 2) Driving tests. These are normally held on Private land and crews have to negotiate them as fast as possible. Occasionally, some tests also contain an average speed element. These events are a good test of teamwork in maintaining the average speeds and negotiating the tests successfully.
Since 2004 KDMC have organised such an event; The Tour of Cheshire, which has it’s own dedicated website, please see this for further details.
Members regularly compete in similar style events throughout the UK, generally run as part of the HRCR (Historic Rally Car Register) Championship and also in Europe.

Road Rallying
A number of members of KDMC are regular competitors in road rallies throughout the UK, these events take place through the night on quiet lanes and are a tough test of driver and navigator to go the correct way and visit all the checkpoints in the required order.

KDMC organise a 12 car each year that is like a mini-road rally and runs on a Friday evening. This usually takes place during November
It is a very good event to sample road rallying.

Stage Rallying
There are a variety of different formats of Stage Rallies. Single-Venue, where all the Stages are in one location and comprise tarmac, gravel or a mix of the two surfaces. Multi-Venue, typically a forest event, which visits several forests during the event.

KDMC organise  a National Level Forest stage rally, which utilises some of the classic forests of mid-Wales; The Plains Rally, which too has it’s own dedicated website, please see this for further details.
We have members who compete in a wide range of stage rallies across the UK.

What are Scatters?

They are more properly called Navigational Scatter Events, and provide a simple introduction to using maps and basic timing.

Whilst sometimes referred to as Scatter Rallies - They are NOT rallies

Who can enter? Anyone with a club membership card.

What do you need ? A reliable car. The family runabout is just as good as any. If you have auxiliary lights fitted, then you’ll either have to remove them or cover them so they can’t be used as they are not allowed by the regulations.

Decent footwear, as you’ll probably have to jump out of the car to find the clue. A good torch is therefore very useful.

A watch. There is only an overall time limit, however it is important to return to hand in your answers within the time limit otherwise you will receive time penalties and may be excluded if you are very late.

A relatively soft (2B,3B or even 4B) pencil to mark the locations on your map(s). An eraser to remove those mis-plots.

A romer - this little piece of plastic is used to accurately plot the map references and in addition has graduations for measuring distances. Very useful for working out just how far to go down that narrow lane.

Maps - The Ordnance Survey Landranger 1:50,000 series are used, currently these retail at £6.99 each.

Once you have been given your list of locations, you then spend some time plotting all the points on your map(s) and then decide which of the points to visit. You are only required to visit 75% of the points but sometimes even that can be difficult.

KDMC run a championship, known as the Twilight Championship consisting of seven events, of which your best 5 scores count towards the championship.

Autotesting requires the driver to manouv...manoov...manovr..ahem..drive his car round a set course between bollards using a defined route as quickly as he/she can. The bollards or cones are used to create ‘garages’, ‘gates’ or tight corners and penalties (usually 10 seconds) are given for any hit, which are added to the time taken. Failure to stop astride lines also carry penalties.

There are different classes based on engine capacity and size and type of vehicle. Most competitive cars for overall awards are Mini-based or sports cars. Lots of practice and skill is required to win, but they are, of course, great fun. The ability to control a car in a tight space can be invaluable in other branches of motor sport

Licences are required to suit the status of the event, however your Club card is all you need for an event just for KDMC members.

The car needs to comply with the usual non-tipping seats, a throttle spring on each throttle spindle and everything securely fastened down. A good handbrake is needed but skilled use of this is an art form! Anyone can spin a car round but just try it without letting the car’s motion stop and point it in the right direction.

Whilst most autotests are held on tarmac, usually a car park, there are some held on grass. In fact KDMC runs a series during the summer months consisting of 4 rounds counting towards a championship. These are usually more open but can be quite slippery. They are an ideal introduction to the sport.

The organisers provide a diagram of each test and it is usual to ‘walk’ the course. This can lead to the rather amusing sight of several people walking round a field sometimes backwards!

When your time comes to start, you line your car up on the line and start in your own reasonable time after the timekeeper is ready. You then complete the course as fast as possible trying not to hit anything, finishing with a stop astride the finish line. Go too far and there’s more penalties.

So why not give it a try? The grass autotests are an ideal starting point and great fun!

Duncan Wild

These are similar to Autotests but do not require you to use reverse gear.

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