My first rally experience
For as long as I can remember, I have always had a need for speed. My earliest memory of writing about a career, probably around six years old, was a stunt driver. I remember seeing incredible feats being performed on TV and being starry eyed thinking about how much fun it would be to do them.
Thirty years later and nothing much has changed. My go to sport through the summer is waterskiing and having recently made the change from slalom skiing to trick skiing. Making this change has given me that rush back and become more fun again.
I’ve tried loads of adrenaline activities over the years and even more that I’ve seen and added on my ‘to do’ list. Like many other things, I find that if I don’t act to get something booked and in my diary then inevitably it’s going to slip off the radar.
One of the things that has slipped quite a few times is driving supercars. I remember when I first saw the experience days that were being offered and being amazed and the thought of driving these supercars that were always a pipe dream.
The experience days that I saw were mainstream and I recall enquiring about cars with hand controls but nothing was available. A couple of years ago, I bought my dad one of these experience days as a birthday present and he had the best time.
This just kept the thought ember burning in the back of my mind.
Earlier this year, someone (can’t remember who, but thank you) I know posted on social media about their experience with Spinal Track, who offer amazing track experiences to disabled people.
The track days at Silverstone are understandably massively popular and didn’t have any availability for the year. Luckily they did have some space on their Rally Experience day which I signed up for without hesitation.
Mini road trip
The track is located at an airfield in Turweston, about two hours drive north of London. I got out of London before seven which I always do in order to beat the traffic. With a little bit of a delay, I made it to the airfield with about 15 minutes to spare.
The day started with a briefing in the airfield control tower about what was going to happen on the day and introduced to the team who would be in the car with us giving instructions.
I have never tried rally driving before, or any of these driving experiences actually, so listening to the way you control the car on the loose surface and how that can change with the weather was fascinating.
Before too long, the first drivers were heading out of the door to the track. There were six of us in total and they have two cars, so there was a little bit of a wait but not much. We were chatting in the control tower and before I knew it, I was passed a helmet and we headed outside.
What happens on the day
The two cars that they have for the rally experience are a Toyota GT86 and BMW E46 Compact. We were split into two groups with one driving each car for the day.
The cars are lower than my daily driver which should make it easier to get into, but with a helmet on and bucket seats installed, it balances out. The hand controls in the car were also the same push/pull controls on my car so there was a strong familiarity with that.
We drove away from the control tower across the airfield, passing a handful of light aircraft en route to the track. We paused for a minute at one end of the airfield to make sure there were no aircraft coming in to land. We got clearance then headed over to the track.
The Toyota was drifting round the corner of the track closest to us as we got there which only built my anticipation.
Before I knew it, the Toyota was heading back to the control tower and we were ready to set off.
The track wasn’t that long, maybe a mile at most. That’s long enough though as you don’t get up a lot of speed on the course. The focus is on control of going round the cones and doing it on a surface that can be difficult to grip.
We had been given enough information in the briefing so it didn’t feel like I was starting from scratch on trying to figure out how to get the most from taking the rear wheel drive around this course. Having said that, I did start driving at a speed that allowed me to get used to how it handled.
It was so much fun! The style of track meant that you couldn’t really get that much speed up with all the turns. I’d say I topped at 40mph. But it wasn’t about the speed. It was about the skills of controlling the car – turning and drifting round the corners.
Each time we went to the track, we did ten laps and did two sessions in the morning and two in the afternoon. I could feel my confidence building throughout the day, on the final set I really went for it.
Would I go again?
I had the best time on the rally experience, I’d do it again in a heartbeat if the opportunity came up. I’ll be keeping my eye on Spinal Track’s social channels for the next track day dates, which are held at Silverstone and more focused on speed.
While it was a ridiculous amount of fun taking the car round the track, the down time was great as well. It gave all six of the drivers there on the day a chance to chat in a very informal setting about all sorts of wheelchair stuff.
The whole day just further reinforced what I already knew about peer support being one of the best tools in building and sustaining resilience.
If this sounds like something you would like to try then check out the Spinal Track website and sign up for an experience you won’t forget!
