What is it?  LeJog is a motorsport event which has run from the mid 1990’s and was the brainchild of John brown one of UK’s top navigators, it involves travelling from Land End to John ‘O’ Groats by way of some 350 timing points on some of the most tricky and difficult  roads on the way.

This is not a speed event  but a reliability trial where the crew, in order to achieve the highest accolade, a gold medal, must be within 60 seconds of their due time at each timing point, the location of these timing points is not known to the crews so not only do you need to navigate the route off 1.50,000 ordnance survey maps by varying methods such as map reference, spot heights, symbols etc but keep to various average speeds from as low as 18mph through villages up to a maximum of 30mph on more open roads.

This was my second year on LeJog navigating in a 1965 Porsche 911 for Howard Warren, the owner of Chester based car parts company CES (UK) Ltd.

The event started at 8am on Saturday 4^th December from Lands End Hotel in Cornwall and wound its way through Cornwall, Devon and Somerset with 3 regularity sections and a few special tests (these are held on private land and are speed tests similar to autotests) plus some unusual ones such as the infamous Bury Ford test where you have to drive through a very deep ford (this year the lights of our car were fully submerged!!!) out the other side, turn off engine and then restart it and move forward to get a time.  We eventually arrived in Magor Services on the M4 just over the border

in Wales at 4pm for a two hour half when we were given route instructions through Wales these included a section around Caerwent Army Camp, then over the Black Mountains where we unfortunately had a wrong slot and lost 2 minutes and our Gold Medal.  As conditions worsened with heavy rain we continued up the county via Buith Wells, Devils Bridge and all the mountain passes connecting them to a halt at Trefegwlys at 10pm where we were given the last part of the route to bring us to the overnight halt (4 hours!) in Ellesmere Port.  This last section ran up through mid Wales around the Lake Vrynwy Area before finishing by Chirk Castle and then up to Ellesmere Port by 4.30am for 4 hours sleep.

Sunday morning started dry and sunny from Ellesmere Port at 9.30am where we were given route instructions which took us up through the centre of the country to Sunday nights halt in Newcastle for a full 10 hours and full nights sleep!!!  Following the first day we were lying 2^nd overall but had also been late at 2 turning points so had dropped to a bronze medal, such was the toughness of the section through Wales that only 2 crews remained on Gold Medals with 5 on Bronze medals.

Sunday was a pretty uneventful day although tough following the limited sleep the night before.  We managed to retain our second place but 2 other crews lost the bronze medal following some tricky navigation sections by Derwent Water in Northumberland.  We eventually arrived in Newcastle at 9.30pm for a much welcome soak in the bath and sleep but it was an early start on Monday at 8.30am for the last section to John ‘O’Groats arriving at 11am Tuesday morning.

Monday turned out to be a challenging day with tricky navigation sections and positions of clocks but the weather had improved we had a late lunch at Queensferry in the shadow of the impressive Forth Bridge before some more tricky sections followed by a 2 hour halt at Kingussie in the Highlands, which saw a total change from the sunny weather of Monday to a thick frost leaving all the roads sheet ice for the next 12 hours of the event!!  We travelled over some of the most exposed roads in the Highlands with temperatures dropping to -10 below apparently according to the marshals but we retained our 2^nd overall position with no dramas having the lowest scores on sections from Newcastle onwards.

The final two sections of the event followed a breakfast halt at Lybster before a well deserved coffee and dram at John O Groats.

After 1480 miles in 75 hours with only 12  hours sleep it is certainly one of the toughest challenges I have had in 25 years plus of motor sport but a great feeling of achievement and I will be back in 2010.  Eventually only 4 medals were issued out of the 40 starters, 2 Gold medals one to eventual winners Andy Lane and Ian Tullie the second one to German crew in a BMW 3.0 Csi, we finished second with a bronze medal and one other bronze medal went to the 4^th placed crew in a Triumph 2000.

RESULTS

1^st        Andy Lane/Ian Tullie                          Mercedes SE300                     433 Points
2^nd        Howard Warren/Guy Woodcock        Porsche 911                             777 Points
3^rd        Christian Ruter/Stephen Huber           BMW 3.0 si                             818 Points
4^th        Charles Harrison/John Hancox           Triumph 2000                          1520 Points
5^th        Steve Pickering/Simon Noyle             Hillman Hunter                       2798 Points

 Guy Woodcock