Funky Elephant 2005: 23rd/24th April 2005

This year was the fourth running of the Funky Elephant Navigational Rally and the third round of the Sebron Rally 2005 South East/Central Southern Road Rally Championship.

We must say a big thank you to all of the marshals who came out on the night and helped us enormously in the successful running of the event. You are all very much appreciated and we hope we can continue to support each other in the years to come.

Whilst planning this year�s event we looked to improve on last year�s event, continuing and building on the successful aspects, whilst improving the less popular ones. Last year we achieved a very demanding event which meant crews had to work hard all night long. We wanted to keep this aspect, challenging both the driver and navigator, but achieve it without the unpopular difficult navigation. In finding this format we examined what worked on local and national events and also looked at what we enjoyed as competitors. The format we came up with was to use very short sections all night long, much simpler navigation and a significant increase in white mileage. We hope that this format achieved our aim of offering a highly demanding, competitive night's motor sport, attractive to both newcomers and experienced competitors.

Congratulations to Mike East and Roger Davidson for winning this year's event. They came out on top from Paul Swindells and Dick Howatt after a night that was made more challenging after a significant amount of rain in the days leading up to the event made some of the whites much slippery and muddier than they had previously been. Chris Winter and Matt Fowle finished third and was the only other expert crew not to miss a board. In the Semi Expert class Carl Gibbs and Lizzie Pope came home first epitomizing the keep going spirit after enduring a difficult night having got stuck several times in the very low MR2. Back in the novice and clubman classes Rob and Andy Fields followed up their class win on the Kent with first place in the Novice class. First in the clubman class was Roy Cuthbert and Glynn Hayward, who despite taking the expert nav in preference to the easier novice, still came home ahead of their nearest challengers Clive Richardson and Mark Saunders in the Hillman Hunter. Full results can be found here and the navigation from this years event here.

Again, many thanks to all competitors for coming out and competing on the event and to all marshals for supporting the event. In order to improve the event for next year we need to know what you think. Whether you are a competitor or marshal we would like to hear from you, both about what you didn't like but also what you did. Please email us or fill in the questionnaire on the Rally 2005 website.

Thank you, we hope to see you all again next year for Funky Elephant 2006.