BMMC MAGAZINE - British Motor Racing Marshals Club

Inside the auction centre was the next stage where I signed us on and received our pack up,
synchronized our watches with the Rally Clock and went into the cafe for a coffee and a look at the
contents of the ominous brown envelope.
First mistake was when we sat down with our coffees, out of habit I started to read the instructions
instead of going through the selectifs with Paul. He got a little frustrated with this and walked out leaving
me to it as he doesn’t like just sitting there with nothing to do, so he took the opportunity to walk the first
selectif which unique to this particular is just outside in the carpark. This therefore left with another trip to
the ladies, then back to the books, sit down, deep breath, drink coffee and get composed. Paul came
back, and we both apologised to each other, we then sat down and went through the book together
before going out to walk round the first selectif as a pair with me talking through the directions and Paul
explaining his intentions, it was all getting pretty real now.
As we were both walking down the first part of the selectif I suddenly realised Paul was no longer beside
me as he wasn’t talking to me anymore so I turned round and saw him stood there in the middle of the
road and noticed his whole demeanour had changed as it had finally dawned on him that here he was
finally realising his dream. Here was this man who suddenly looked like he was 12 yrs old again when he
saw his first rally as a spectator at night seeing the lights coming through the trees of Dalby Forest in
Yorkshire on the Lombard RAC Rally almost smelling the burning and exhaust fumes dreaming one day
to have a go himself and now here he is about to take part in his first ever rally. All I could do for him was
to give him a hug as he shook slightly with excitement and obviously as nervous as me. To be honest, I
was a little relieved to see this I would most certainly have been worried at this point if he wasn’t a bit
nervy. One thing Paul always said to me after my trips to the ladies was “It shows you care”. So now I
quoted it back to him and after we composed ourselves off we set to walk the selectif before heading
back for the competitors brief.
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