Last weekend the Cornwall & Devon Land Rover club held their first meeting of the season. The first meeting was an RTV (Road Taxed Vehicle) event - This comprises of road legal (and relatively unmodified) Land Rover 90's, Discovery's, Range Rovers and the odd Lightweight.
The aim of the off roading competition is to drive around a tricky off road stage, whilst driving through a set number of challanging gates. Unlike most motorsports, speed is not essential. If any of the gates are touched, the stage is over for the competitor, like wise if the competitors vehicle stops/stalls or gets stuck on the stage, the competitor can no longer continue or finish the stage. Each gate has a number, every time a competitor touches a gate, or cannot otherwise complete the stage the last gate that the competitor pasted through is scored. At the end of 8 stgaes, the competitor with the lowest number is deemed the winner.
Vehicle control, and driver skill is easy to learn - but hard to master, and can be shown by the wide range of ages of the competitors (which are also both male and female). Some of the members have been driving Land Rovers off-road for decades, others have only been off-road a couple of times. But everyone shows the same amount of friendly competition, which enables grass root (or in this case muddy!!) motorsport to flourish despite the grim economic climate.
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