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LUNA 9 – February 3rd 2012.
Friday saw the first round of the MCLSstoragesolutions navigation rally series, all the entries were in on time with one late withdrawal – however there were reserves on standby to step in if a place became available. After the remaining mountain of paperwork completed it was off to Central Garage, Stornoway for scrutineering where Norman Macdonald gave the use of his time and facility freely – for that we are very grateful. The two Normans ably assisted by Derick and Murdo got all the cars through with very little drama - a few adjustments and tightenings here and there to sort it all out.
Then back to the Bowling club for a coffee and a craic – last car was through scrutineering just after nine.
First car away was Jim Currie (Clerk of the Course) 10 minutes ahead of the competitors – this to run through the route and make sure all the time controls were in position and knew what to do. Jim had Iain Macleod with him as navigator – In Iain’s defense he was roped in at the last minute.
Running order as follows:
1. Laura and Murdo Graham in their red BMW 316
2. Andy and Callum White in the very, very new Renault Clio.
3. John ‘Bobo’ Clark and Norman ‘Peel’ Maciver with their very bright torch.
4. Scott ‘Nomie’ Macleod and his girlfriend Fiona Campbell in the luxury Landcruiser.
5. Andrew Graham and Mathew Martin in the ‘ Oh! we didnt go down that road’ Vauxhall Astra
6 Scott ‘Mathie’ Matheson and Mark Mackenzie in the D Campbell sponsored Renault Megane.
7. CJ Campbell and JA Macleod in the Vauxhall Astra
8. Donnie ‘Uig’ Smith and Shaun’ That was to hard’ Sinclair in the Landcruiser.
9 Norman ‘Fergie’ Ferguson and Murray Macleod with the Vauxhall Vectra with sandbags in the boot.
10. Mairi Macleod and Maureen Murray in the Renault Clio
11. Chris Macarthur and Shaun Munro with the biggest car in the world, Volvo Estate
12. Donald Riddle and Craig ‘I’m going to slow Fergie down’ Morrison
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| Donald Riddle / Craig Morrison | 188 | 25 | |
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| Donnie Smith / Shaun Sinclair | 202 | 18 | |
| CJ Campbell / JA Macleod | 205 | 15 | |
| Scott Matheson / Mark Mackenzie | 208 | 12 | |
| John Clark / Norman Maciver | 232 | 10 | |
| Andrew Graham / Mathew Martin | 255 | 8 | |
| Scott Macleod / Fiona Campbell | 291 | 6 | |
| Andy White / Callum White | 307 | 4 | |
| Chris Macarthur / Shaun Munro | 309 | 2 | |
| Mairi Macleod / Maureen Murray | 326 | 1 | |
| Laura Graham / Murdo Graham | 331 | 0 | |
| Norman Ferguson / Murray Macleod | 340 | 0 |
As can be seen very little time wise separated the top four, the times noted are a combination of the finished time and any additional penalties incurred.
The course was designed with maximum confusion in mind – it was anticipated that cars would be passing each other en- route and leading to doubt as to whether the correct course was being run.
Start to TC1 – was a mixture of tulip diagrams and navigation notes with an anticipated time of 15mins, Scott Nomie had this one down to a fine art with the best time of 19 minutes – only four minutes over. This was spiced up a bit by rotating the direction arrow round
TC1 – TC2 was a straightforward map referencing guide – it was spiced up a bit by occasionally giving 8 figure references and the odd imperial size as well. Nothing other than careful map reading was required. 22 minutes were allowed for this one – over half the cars reported in within 3 minutes of their allocated time……. it was too easy..
TC2- TC3 proved to be a very difficult one for everyone – the target time of 21 minutes was allowed with a number of cars coming in on their time – however they all came from the wrong direction.
The clues for that was: A is to Z , what 26 is to 1.. therefore A=26, B-25, C-24 etc etc.. however for those that took the time, the first word was END and if you had carried on decoding you would have seen the last word was START.. So you start at the start and finish at the end.
TC3-TC4 proved to be every bit just as difficult- the target time for this was 45minutes. A lot of cars lost a lot of time in this stage. The clues were numbers and shapes; the numbers were the gridlines you crossed in order to follow the road – with a few symbols thrown in ( embankment, church, public convenience etc) in theory this was pure map reading skill with a bit of maths thrown in. You had to subtract a certain number for a location to take you to the next reference, those that worked out it was the top of Tong road did well. Then onto a couple of compass directions.
TC4-TC5 – Was the finish up stage, those that were on the ball would have noticed the mistake in the timing on the notes was different to the time card. This one was ‘arrive at the junction on the hour and leave on the minute’ should have taken you up round Mossend, eventually finishing off at the Bowling Club.
In our defense it was not meant to be too difficult- those that attended without any prior research would have struggled ( and probably did) however the 4 were relatively close.
The next Navigation rally is scheduled for Friday 23rd March, hopefully the antics for the Luna 9 did not put anyone off and Lewis Car Club look forward to seeing you all ( and new members) then.
Well done to Donald and Craig for doing well in coming away with maximum point. Although rumors of a silver 4×4 going through Tong at the speed of light have been started here!
The spirit of the event and the night in general was first class- the crack was good and ‘Oh, the banter’ was even better!
Thanks
Luna 9 Crew
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Championship Sponsored by:
Thanks go to the following that made the event a happen:
Norman ‘Central’ Macdonald
Jim Currie & Iain Macleod – Clerk of the Course and Navigator
Norman Maclean and Donald Macleod – TC1
Louis Maclennan and Kenny Maclennan – TC2
Derick Beaton and Murdo Campbell – TC3
Ali Macleod and John Campbell – TC4
These guys were out in the cold for hours making it happen!
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