Story: Rachel Medich
Pictures: Songasport Rally Media
Rachel Medich, a regional and club level rally co-driver in the United Kingdom, recently sat in the driver’s side of a rally car to experience her sport from a different perspective. With a decade of co-driving behind her, competing in a host of events each season, here Rachel relates to readers of HANDBRAKES & HAIRPINS her first taste of rally driving.
Having competed for, ahem, ten years, I am no stranger to being in a rally car but I’ve always viewed the sport from the co-driver’s seat. I’ve never fancied swapping seats – until recently. I can’t say exactly what brought this about as I have always been happy to be in control of everything, bar the steering wheel. All I can attribute it to is the purchase of my new road car, “Dougal”, whom I love dearly. He has a rally pedigree and I have discovered a love for driving him on tight and twisty back roads.
In an attempt to cure my driving desire, I was given a gift of a rally day at Birkbeck’s Rally School in Yorkshire. I had looked forward to the day since it was booked for me in February.
My other half came along to support me (also to make fun, perhaps), and he kept asking if I was nervous about my first go behind the wheel.
“Nervous? No, no. Why would I be nervous of something that’s just a bit of fun?” I lied. I was nervous though, and I couldn’t figure out why: perhaps it was because I’m a girl and I wanted to be fastest? Perhaps it was because I didn’t want to be slow and make silly mistakes? All I did know is that I didn’t sleep well the night before and was up at the break of dawn, raring to go!
Once signed on I was taken in a minibus with the other first-timers to the stage, which was perhaps the windiest place on earth! We all waited for our first time behind the wheel of the Ford Focus school cars; I went quiet, and felt nervous.
My time arrived and I was guided to the car. With a slight shake occurring in my hands, I placed my helmet on my head and folded myself into the driver’s seat where I met my instructor Nick Cook. Luckily we have mutual friends so I relaxed ever so slightly. My first task was to attempt some handbrake turns around a big square… “Easy,” I thought, “I’ve seen plenty!” The reality was not quite so easy. The first problem I discovered was a lack of strength to pull up the handbrake, while the second problem was an unyielding thirst to catch the guy in front. Where did that come from? I kept asking myself. There was this poor boy, enjoying his rally day, and some mad woman was trying to overtake him!
The next stage introduced a few more corners of differing degrees and surfaces, I made a conscious effort not to let the guy in front bother me, but unfortunately I caught him again and this meant I had to sit still in the centre of the course with Nick keeping his foot on the brake pedal (dual controls, you see) as he didn’t trust me not to go chasing after him. I endured a bit of a telling off after this run along the lines of “You can do it well, when you chill out” and “It’s not a competition, enjoy it.”
I was well behaved on my other runs; I was put out in front of the other driver so I couldn’t see him and I started to improve, so much so that on my last run of the day I lapped the guy I was trying not to chase and wasn’t told off as I had earned it. I was told I improved massively through the day and was one of the quickest out of the 20 who took part. Not bad for the only girl, I reckon.
I was beaming at the end of the day and what was meant to cure me of my driving ambition has now only served to make it stronger!
I will still co-drive as that is most definitely my motorsport talent. However, I think that with a bit of practice I will perhaps manage to be more than simply the “girl who tootles around at the back” of the event! Now to raise some cash for a rally car and find some single stage venues to attack…
Keep track of Rachel’s progress at www.mudmagnetrallying.co.uk.