Driver Rachel Clark, from Aberdeen, competed on the
event last year and successfully finished after over 40 miles of tough
forest stages. This year she will be partnered by Brampton’s Caroline Lodge in
the navigator’s seat. The pairing have already completed two events this
season with great results on the Scottish rally in Dumfries and the Speyside
Stages in Elgin. They will use their usual Nissan Micra 1300 which is supported
by E.Watson and Son, Pirelli, AW Motorsport and McPherson Document Solutions.
The team was formed in late 2011 with the aim of
using rallying to raise funds and awareness for charities through motorsport. To
date they have raised over £3,500 and this year their supported charity is the
Nystagmus Network. Nystagmus is a presently incurable eye condition from which
Rachel’s son suffers so it is a cause that is very close to her heart. The team
are also raising awareness of the Bottle Stop campaign, a project which is
seeking to ban glass bottles from town centre pubs following the tragic death
of the project founder’s husband in an unprovoked attack with a broken bottle.
“The Rally2Raise project has gone really well,”
said Rachel. “I think we’ve done a good job raising awareness of our causes,
especially those which are not so well known such as the Nystagmus Network. The
rallying community has been incredibly generous in supporting us, I did not
expect that we would raise so much in less than two years.”
“I’m really looking forward to the Merrick Stages,
I enjoyed it last year and hopefully we will get another good result. The event
uses some classic Scottish rallying stages which are a pleasure to compete
on. The rally organisers have given us a discounted entry fee which we're
extremely grateful for, it's fantastic that they are supporting Rally2Raise
again.”
“We’ll have the lowest powered car in the event but
that won’t stop us from pushing as hard as we can and trying to beat the crews
in more powerful cars.”
As well as competing on the Merrick the team are
busy organising a virtual rally to raise funds for the Nystagmus Network. The
event will take place on 27th October and entries, costing £5, are
available now. All levels of experience are catered for including total
beginners and you don’t even have to leave your home to take part! Please visit
www.rally2raise.co.uk or www.facebook.com/rally2raise for
more information.
