Stuart Loudon, co-driver and biscuit engineer
I remember going to watch my dad Fergus compete as a co-driver in the Scottish Rally Championships in the early 1990s and from a young age I wanted to be a rally driver. Dad suggested I try co-driving as, for one thing, it is a bit cheaper.
I did my first rally on Mull in 2006. I caught the bug and was more than happy to continue co-driving. The one big piece of advice he gave me was: "You need to remain calm". A lot of co-drivers get very excited but that is the last thing that you want; you start to make the driver anxious and you need to keep the driver as calm as possible. The other thing he instilled in me was to keep a good rhythm when reading the pace notes.
As co-driver, you are the office manager. Before the rally, you are involved in the entry, the team schedules, booking hotels, the transport and working out how much fuel the car will need; you want to try and keep it as light as possible. Then you've got the administrative checks and the recce where you get to make your pace notes.
Now, I'll get a call to work with somebody I've have never sat with before. It's difficult not knowing the person so you do a bit of background work, to make sure that the driver is not a lunatic, basically.
There was a Japanese driver that I sat with at Rally Monte Carlo three years ago and before the event it was sold to me as him having lots of experience. I turned up and the guy had never driven a tarmac rally before. Here we were going into one of the hardest tarmac rallies in the world championship. You have to be able to adapt to these situations. Thinking on your feet is what makes a good co-driver.
The driver I was with for the last two seasons, Robert Barrable, and I would meet up outside rallying, have a beer and a few laughs. We got on very well and that's key to a good working relationship.
I've sat with a couple of guys who don't have a lot of experience and have shouted at a couple of them and said: “Look, you need to listen to what I am saying. If you want to progress as a driver, you need to trust and listen to the co-driver.”
Your life is in their hands, and their life is in your hands.There are times when you go round in fifth or sixth gear and think “Jeez, that was quick”. You can't show any emotion, you just need to keep reading. If you stop, that's when mistakes are made. Some of these roads you are going down at 135 mph so there is no time for thinking, you just keep reading.
We had a crash in Portugal recently. We hit a rock face and rolled the car maybe six times and went about 30 feet down a ravine. It happened in seconds but when you are inside the car, rolling down a hill it seems to go on forever. You are just saying to yourself: “Please stop”. We got off better than the car did. You just need to get up, dust yourself off and get on with the next one.
I started working at Tunnock's two years ago to give me more time to do the rallying. I was an aeronautical engineer at Rolls Royce for seven years and they were fantastic at supporting me, but I knew there would be a time when I wasn't going to be able to take six weeks off to go rallying. My grandfather Boyd was keen on me coming to work at Tunnock's. It is a big change, aeroplane engines to biscuits, but it is nice to feel a part of the family business and help push it forward.
My highlight has been winning the Mull rally in 2013 because we had the car sponsored by Tunnock's. We led from start to finish and it was the first rally that I won outright.
*www.stuartloudon.co.uk
Marisa Duffy
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