Monday 9th December 2013

Mission Motorsport tackles LeJog rally

UPDATED: Injured soldiers driving a 1980 Range Rover from Lands End to John O'Groats

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UPDATE: If you read our story about Mission Motorsport's entry to the LeJog rally in a distinctively liveried three-door classic Range Rover and wanted to know how they're getting on it's well worth keeping an eye on the Twitter feed of friend of PH and Mission Motorsport figurehead Jim Cameron. See @Tankslider for the full feed of updates and pictures but last we heard - and following plenty of adventures including use of a bungee cord to keep the Rangie out of defaulting to low range - the team crossed into Scotland an hour ago. "Still not halfway..." comes the thoughtful tweet from Jim!

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A 33 year-old Range Rover, three days and 1,000 miles of regularity rallying. This is the challenge facing Mission Motorsport over this weekend as it tackles the Historic Endurance Rally Organisation LeJog event. Sounds brave...

The crew with their Rangie and support Mazda

The Range Rover crew comprises Sgt Gary Dunning, LCpl Will Reeks and LCpl Ben Cheal, all injured servicemen having served in Afghanistan and Iraq. A Mazda-sponsored support team of two vehicles will also accompany the lads with another four soldiers and veterans.

If LeJog is unfamiliar, it’s the route from Lands End to John O’Groats, working its way from south to north over the three days. It would be a feat of driving and navigational aptitude in a modern car, so kudos to the lads for going with the old Rangie. The events is open to all cars built before 1984 and has 70 cars competing this year.

In its desert camouflage livery, the Mission Motorsport Rangie won’t be hard to spot. It's a rather different prospect to the Sierra used for April's London Rally For Heroes but should certainly be an exciting weekend All the best lads, hope it goes well!

For more on Mission Motorsport see here.

[b14]

Awesome paint job. Hopefully it's had the same care over the mechanicals that it has had to the bodywork!

[andyps]

To be honest it appears to me that tackling this in a 33 year old Range Rover looks like taking the easy option compared to many of the entrants.

[Shaw Tarse]

Good luck to them, will be following them on twitter.
PHer benjj is also on the rally

[il-mostro]

I saw this today heading south on the M5 just south of Bristol. Looked awesome. Good luck lads.

[YorkshirePudding]

Good luck everyone, I will be marshalling in North Yorks on Sun,

[toppstuff]

andyps said:

To be honest it appears to me that tackling this in a 33 year old Range Rover looks like taking the easy option compared to many of the entrants.

Good luck lads.

I think there may be practical reasons for using the Rangie, given the disabilities some of the chaps may carry.

Mind you, I know a chap who has done le Jog in a Austin Healey. Cramped and with no ground clearance, it was quite a feat of endurance.

[daveparry]

Am I missing something?

A feat of aptitude etc!

You could go Lejog all day long in a Rangie of that age!

Ps I am a Veteran, mind you not an injured one!

[YorkshirePudding]

It was very wet today in Hawes, for the crews on the Ropeworks test, but Ben is still going,

[DonkeyApple]

andyps said:

To be honest it appears to me that tackling this in a 33 year old Range Rover looks like taking the easy option compared to many of the entrants.

Look at those front seats though. They look terribly uncomfortable.

[MonzaEvo]

A few photos from the Victoria Inn, Cornwall..... Saturday 7th December (We couldn't hang around too long due to time constraints sadly)


1962 Rover P4-100 by monzaevo, on Flickr


1963 Lotus Cortina by monzaevo, on Flickr


1965 Porsche 911 SWB 2.0 by monzaevo, on Flickr


1960 Peugeot 403 by monzaevo, on Flickr


1961 Alfa Giulietta Ti by monzaevo, on Flickr

Rgds
Jonathan

[hi court]

I saw a few of the vehicles including the range rover at lands end and st just friday night, i must confess i too thought the range rover was the best option especially considering the other vehicles!! Good luck to you all amd you all looked smart in your suits friday night!

[moribund]

daveparry said:

Am I missing something?

A feat of aptitude etc!

You could go Lejog all day long in a Rangie of that age!

Ps I am a Veteran, mind you not an injured one!

Yes, you're missing something! This is one of the most demanding navigation rallies in Europe. They'll be doing most of the journey on single track roads, with demanding navigation and time constraints, autotests and naff all sleep for 3 days.

They're not just blasting up the M6/M74.

[PistonBroker]

Ah, it's only just occurred to me - as I drove from Nether Stowey to Taunton over the hills on Saturday evening, was it likely to be a Le Jog marshal point I spied? Was something classic - speed and dark meant I couldn't identify it properly.

[benjj]

I've just arrived home from the rally and will write up a report some time over the next few days once my hands stop bleeding after all the blisters burst.

It was simply the hardest, most challenging rally I've ever done, and I say this as someone who has regularly competed in Europe doing 700km per day for 5 day events.

The Mission Motorsport crew and support were inspirational and showed huge reserves of bottle.

[johnfm]

H

daveparry said:

Am I missing something?

A feat of aptitude etc!

You could go Lejog all day long in a Rangie of that age!

Ps I am a Veteran, mind you not an injured one!

Yes, you are missing something. We don't go the 867 miles fastest route on the TomTom! Over 1500 miles in 3 days.

After a first leg from Lands End to Llangollan, you have been driving from 0900 to 0430. You get 3 hours sleep, then you are off across Cheshire, through Yorkshire and finish in Carlisle. You finally get a proper night's rest.

Then it steps up a gear.

The last leg of LeJog, we left Carlisle at around 0900.

We then had 27 hours with a single two hour stop, during which I spent 1hr 40 minutes plotting the routes they gave us - so a luxurious 10 minutes sleep in 27 hours.

In any car it is a feat of sleep deprived, blind crest and Armco avoiding madness - well, it was in our car anyway!

It was an epic adventure. The lads from Mission Motorsport were brilliant - though I'm not overly happy with the lads getting me aboard the Jagermeister Train...

No doubt Ben & Jim will have more detailed and entertaining reports for you later.

Edited by johnfm on Thursday 12th December 00:05

[Gilhooligan]

I was working as a track marshal at a karting centre when these guys came by as part of the rally and drove their cars on the outside circuit.
If you search on YouTube le jog Raceland there's a couple of videos of them going round the track.

[daveparry]

I stand suitably corrected, sounds like a bit of an adventure! well done!