National Rally 2009

Kegworth Control

The control is located in the car park of Moto M&S Services near junction 23a of the M1. It was open at 2pm Saturday afternoon 4 July and ran until closing at 7.20 Sunday morning on 5 July.

You can reach the services by several routes:

From the M1 northbound leave at junction 23a and the services are signposted.

From Kegworth village centre take High Street/Ashby Road at the Flying Horse and continue all the way to the A453. Turn left and the services are the second exit at the next roundabout.

You could approach on the A453 from Donington Park and EM Airport but I don't expect you to be coming from that direction!

Use [+] to zoom in closer!

On The Day

The control operated on four watches beginning at 1.30 to set up stall ready for the crowd who began the event from Kegworth. The watches had half hour overlaps and each lasted for about five hours.

The start times for the watches included an overlap for a smooth handover from the previous Watch. There was enough support for breaks and the following Watch arrived in good time to take over.

Hawk Watch were the reserve team.

Tony Bradley again provided continuity support throughout the event and shelter from passing showers with his camper van.

*Wally's Letter

At the moment we are down on last year's entries for the Rally but we are all keeping our fingers crossed that the entry level will pick up later. It usually does as the actual weekend gets closer; I think some people wait to see what the weather holds out for them. Of course it could be the current financial crisis which is causing problems, we will have to wait and see.

Everything is now in place for this year and we are hoping for the right weather over the Rally weekend. Of course we all know it will not rain - will it?

Do please remember that if you have any queries about the running of your Control you must seek advice as soon as possible, especially so after you have received the pack of instructions which you will get about two weeks before the actual Rally itself. If you have not received your pack by 22nd June, let me know immediately.

I always send each Control 5 badges in their pack and the instructions enclosed with the pack does state that if you have more helpers than 5 ask me for extra badges straight away and I will send them to you. After the Rally is over it is likely that there may be no badges left so please bear that in mind.

This is our second year at Bletchley Park therefore for next year we will be looking for another Final Control. Unfortunately, this means that we may well lose a couple of our Controls for this year. If this happens to you it is only because the whole matrix has to move towards the area of where the Final Control is situated it is not an indication that we wish to get rid of you; far from it, the whole Rally could not be run in its present form without all of the volunteers who run the Controls.

Please be aware that this year we have allowed quadricycles to partake in the Rally providing that both the rider and the passenger wear safety helmets. It makes a change and should be more interesting.

The next time you hear from me will be about two weeks before the Rally itself and this will include the pack with all the necessary to run the Control. So until then, keep riding and keep yourself safe and remember, if you have any problems get advice from me immediately.