Ryedale Rally Marshalling 2006 - 10th-11th June 06 - written by Nick Lawson

We left home early on Saturday morning and arrived in time to set up our tents before signing on. After receiving our instructions a group of us including Mick Swinbank and another guy whose name I can't remember followed John Pullan to where we were marshall for the morning.

The riders set off from the start area where we were camping in Cropton Forest and went by road to Doby forest. The tarmac section was the part we were marshalling. I was on a crossroads with a dodgy angle and Marc was manning a gate. After the last man had passed we then followed the cometitors into Dolby forest. We rode the couse looking for anyone with any problems. The Mark and a few others came accross a guy at the end of the special test with a Honda CRF450x that had been for a swim. I can vouch for how deep the water was!

Later in the lap there was a steep and very slippy accent which after seeing 2 army riders drop their MT350 Harleys I managed to carefully make it down under the watchful eye of Mick S. There was then a slippy muddy slope with a drop at one side with about 4 or 5 marshalls. My XR250 with fairly new enduro tyres had no problem. At the top of this slope I met up with Marc and a few others including Nick Nicholson who was competing. The slope was a read challenge for the guys on the big twin trail bikes which explains why there were so many marshalls there.

I managed to lose Marc as he is way too fast for me and then got lost, ending up back at the start of the special test again. By the time I was back at the Dolby start/ finish area I had very welcome can of coke and tea from the army tent. I did not have time to go round again so after catching the latest on the England world cup game we headed back to our marshal points on road.

After the last man passed, we headed into Cropton Forest for a lap. After returning to the campsite we prepared our bikes for the next days and had some food. By the time we had popped into Pickering for fuel it was about 9pm so time for a few beers then bed.

On Sunday we were up quite early as the start time was an hour earlier than Sat. Marc and I were posted at 2 road junctions were the course entered then left the public road. I was where the course met the road and it was a good job I was there as a few people were going a bit quick and the road was quite narrow. We did most of a lap from the point we were to the finish.

We both really enjoyed the weekend and can't understand why more people don't do it as while you don't ride as much as the competitors, it does not cost anything except the diesel for the van where as the competitors pay £110 for the entry fee and ACU licence.

There are more pictures from this event on the Gallery page.

Nick Lawson