ILFRACOMBE COMP SAFARI

Words - David C Lovejoy Photography - Daisy Lovejoy

Motorsport is highly addictive. It’s also expensive. For instance, Competitive Safari (Comp Safari) was once likened to standing in a cold shower, whilst a friend throws mud and gravel at you and another flushes your cash down the toilet.

I stopped competing well before life got expensive with kids and mortgages. I couldn’t afford the time, money or the impact upon my health. The same happened with endurance rallying and trialling.

To get my fix, I started marshalling. It’s relatively cheap, you are in the middle of the action and people are (generally) grateful for your help. As I got older, I strayed away from mainstream 4x4 stuff and ventured into classic car orientated competitions, then endurance trials. Many years passed, then Covid 19 happened, so I made a life choice, to start back at my roots.

Iwas already a member of the British Motorsport Marshals Club (BMMC), but I knew it would be better to be a registered marshal with Motorsport UK. With all that extra time on my hands, I joined and then completed the online training, registering for speed events and rallying. No cost - excellent.

Fast forward a bit and the All-Wheel Drive Club (AWDC), the UK’s oldest Multi Marque 4x4 club, announces it is putting on its first Comp Safari of the year, having ticked all the boxes for Covid restrictions. I put my name down to help.

Comp Safari is medium length course off road racing. Against the clock. But with other competitors on the track at the same time. It’s fast, the attrition rate is high.

Unlike with the Land Rover Clubs, there are a lot of very special ‘Specials’ as well as ‘Side by Sides’ and Single seat buggies. There’s also a number of relatively basic classes, for easier preparation. Covid restrictions mean no spectators for the foreseeable future, so helping out by marshalling or race admin, is an excellent way to see the racing close up.

The site for the event was just west of Ilfracombe, in North Devon, which is about two hours drive for me. The night before, number two daughter and I packed the tent, supplies and her camera, and pootled on down in the Discovery.

We arrived, set up tent, had a bite to eat, then meandered over to the Chief Marshal, to see what the plan was for the next day. Alan (Chief Marshal), bless him, was lying under his Freelander cursing. I should mention here, there is a class for Freelanders, so laying out the course with one helps enormously. His viscous coupling (newly fitted) had spat out it’s dummy in a big way. Being the helpful soul, I am, I offered to drive him round the course, so we could put out the marshal boards out, and it would be a nice chance for some interesting off tarmac driving, in the disco.

Daughter number two jumped in the back, as she wanted to get a few pictures of the moon (she’s thinking of embarking on a GSCE in Photography). She’s passionate about cars and machinery; but more for the way they look, than the way they work.

All went well, but we failed to finish setting up, as it simply got too dark! I must say, I was somewhat smug when the ‘Chief’ praised the off-road ability of my Discovery. It’s a project I’m five years in to and rather pleased about.

The day of the event dawned early, too damned early! We headed out at 6.45am as we still had some course checks

We ended up with Marshal Point 09. Not a bad site, with the potential for a little ‘action’. An excellent day ensued. I was especially impressed by the ‘Side by Sides’, one with a blown 1000c Snowmobile motor in it. That’s an RZR with nigh on 170bhp and a top speed of 85mph. This little beast gave some of the big V8 powered motors a serious run for the money.

There were two Milner race trucks involved, as well as Tomcats, QT’s, at least one Warrior, a Suzuki that I think may have been built by KAP and a fair few others into the mix.

Fifty starters and less than ten finishers, over a 12 run day. That’s some attrition level. It's a tough site. with some extremely fast sections, and some really tough, slower sections in the woods full of big, solid trees not worth bouncing off. The hill past Marshal Point 5 was like a ski jump slope, reached by a leap of faith over a blind brow, and there were plenty of butt clenching side slopes.

Clerk of Course was Bruce Tigwell, husband to Diana Tigwell of Off Road World Wide (ORWW) fame. Bruce is one of the best know Comp Safari champions the UK has ever produced.

Steward for the event was Pete Rowe. Between them Bruce and Pete have more comp safari wins than any other person, living or dead, so the standard of the course was never in doubt.

As for ‘action’, well the ground dried out fast, so our excitement was limited to watching the cars, listening to the comms chatter and sorting out a puncture of car 699 (a Freelander 1 ). An excellent weekend all round.

The next AWDC Comp Safari is on the 11th of October at Walters Arena, South Wales. Due to Covid restrictions there is no spectating allowed at AWDC events at the moment, but if you want to see some action marshals are always needed.

Contact the AWDC Chief Marshal through the club website - www.awdc.co.uk.