The Goodyear British Off Road Championship The 2004 Grizedale Forest Rally - 4th December By Matt Rudd (Age 14)

The Lake District: an idyllic place in the UK. So peaceful and beautiful - large lakes and mountains which have so many good views. But think about it. I am a motorsport reporter and photographer so why am I here? The 2004 Grizedale Forest Rally.

The rally itself was based at the beautiful village of Coniston. Well, just east at the Grizedale Forest complex in the heart of the Lake District National Park. Before this year I had never been to this superb event but had read about it in the rallying comics - Motorsport News and Autosport and seen pictures on peoples websites like www.ianhardy.net

The day had unfortunately to start rather early, 4am to be more specific as either side of the event we had a four hour journey which was nice and fun but we didn't get lost that was a bonus.

The rallying complex is so great especially at the famous scissors section (post 18 stage 1 & 5 and post 12 stages 2 & 6) as there is a massive clearing through the forest so on most sides you can see the wonderful mountains. The tracks were slippery in places but not too muddy as they had a hardy base and a bonus for spectators and competitors - the rain held off just about all day and the rain that did fall wasn't too heavy.

The entry list for the event was over flowing with some of the who's who of British stage rallying. These included Cumbria's own Matt Wilson and Scott Martin (Ford Focus WRC) who were actually competing in the event for the first time. There was also Northallerton's Steve Petch who had won the event in 2002 and 2003 his son Stephen was also competing in the event in a Peugeot 206.

Other top names included Steve Perez (Ford Focus) who recently competed in the RAC Rally and is owner of VK Vodka.

As well as Steve and Matt in Focus's there was also William Stobart and Paul Bird head of Monster Mob Ducati. On the day 123 cars started the event and after 6 long stages only 87 competitors reached the finish. Locals Keith Turner and Steve Ward from Brandsburton unfortunately went out of the rally after stage 2 as their Subaru Impreza developed gearbox problems.

Also Cottingham's Gavin Smith and Guy Gladwin finished 59th overall in their Cottingham MOT Centre sponsored Peugeot 205.

Overall the rally was won by Matt Wilson on his first Grizedale Forest Rally. He won the event with a time of 45 minutes 20 seconds. In second place was Paul Bird and he was closely followed by 2002 and 2003 winner Steve Petch. Steve's son retired in his Peugeot 206 on stage 5 (photo of car in ditch!)

All in all this was a brilliant event in a brilliant part of the country. Shame it's four hours away but I all already looking forward to going back to the Grizedale Forest Rally 2005.

The events website is www.grizedalestages.co.uk More pictures from the event can be found on www.motorsportinternational.tk

Photographs courtsey and Copyright © Matt Rudd 2004

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