The marshals were the real HEROes of the HERO Land's End to John O'Groats Classic Reliability Trial on December 2-5, standing out on Welsh mountains in driving rain and howling winds at unearthly hours of the night, bravely signing time cards when they could barely breathe or stand up, let alone maintain circulation in their fingers. As for those competing in open, pre-war cars ...

"We lost Gold medal standard in Wales because we just couldn't see properly in the night and driving rain; I must modify the car for next year," commented 1936 Riley 12/4 driver Roy Williams, adding that it was the best rally he'd done in 2006. "Peter Nedin has maintained the event's supremely high standard. The various routes from Land's End to John O'Groats were well threaded together this year and the long string of TCs as the finish drew close was just right to keep the crews' adrenaline going - and keep them safe - after a long night."

"The route was very good," confirmed Victoria Green, co-driving the 1936 Bentley Derby Sports. "It was a challenge all the way, but especially from Magor to Telford."
"It was a cracking route, especially in Wales, and the organisation was up to its usual high standard," agreed Rover P4 driver Robert McClean.

"This is the most challenging classic rally in Europe, possibly the world," enthused 1941 Chevy driver Alain Grisay, veteran of numerous Liege-Rome, Mille Miglia and other prestigious rallies, of his first LE JOG. "We would have taken that wrong-slot in the forests deliberately, if we'd known it would lead us to the magnificent herd of deer we saw close-up," laughed co-driver Tracey Curtis-Taylor. Their 1941 Chevrolet Coupe Deluxe was overall concours winner on the event.

 LE JOG is a real leveller and all manner of cars take part: stars of the non-competitive but still challenging Tour this year were Chris and Emma Lock who, when their Austin A40 Farina wasn't ready for their first attempt at LE JOG, rushed out and bought a Triumph Dolomite for �100, changed the brake pads and carburettor mountings, then completed the whole event without problems. They received the Spirit of the Rally (Tour) Award. Winners on the Trial were Robert Harley and John Bayliss, limping their 1958 Triumph TR3A across the finish line in third gear, the only one still working after they strained the gearbox pulling the second-placed 1959 Sunbeam Rapier of Malcolm Pickering and Simon Nagle out of a ditch; Harley and Bayliss achieved their win after similar assistance from third-placed Robert and Susan McClean in their 1962 Rover 100! Harley and Bayliss were in their third-choice car, having originally entered a Bentley, swapped that to a Jaguar when it was clear the Bentley could not be ready, and then a few days before the rally found the Jaguar's engine was not right, so hastily prepared the TR3A. Chances are it'll be first choice car in future!

This camaraderie between leading competitors is exceptional in motorsport but shows the friendliness of HERO classic rallies: there's a real feeling, especially on LE JOG, the toughest event of all, of being on a big team adventure and pulling together to get as many as possible to John O'Groats. For some, even divine intervention seemed to be on hand. Fred and Polly Multon in the 1925 Alvis 12/50 had already had distributor problems in Wales, fixed by the event's roving mechanics; then their dynamo failed. Their battery gradually went flat; they borrowed another, ran it flat and ground to a halt in the middle of nowhere. Striding up and down the road in desperation, Polly found an abandoned car battery. Incredibly, it had enough power in it to get them going again and get them home.

Dr Hans Zielinski found himself without a navigator at Telford; Barry Mottier, riding shotgun in the back of his father's Ford Baja Bronco, agreed to step in. After a 15-minute crash course on navigating, which he'd never done before, he leapt into the navigator's seat of the 1964 Mercedes 300SE and proceeded to navigate Hans to first in class!

The Spirit of the Rally award for the Trial went to the crew of the 1971 Citroen DS, Warren and Jean Chmura. They broke a driveshaft on the first day, had the car recovered home (which is about as close to the start as you can get - they live in St Just in Cornwall), sourced and fitted a replacement then belted up the motorway to rejoin the rally at Carlisle.

A relatively small entry of 44 cars was depleted to just 31 by the end of this gruelling rally, but even those who failed to finish enthused about the slick organisation, the dedication of the marshals, the challenging tests and medal sections, the seemingly endless hours of exciting driving, demanding navigation, spectacular scenery and wild weather that make LE JOG such a special event.

"Saturday was idyllic," said 1966 Lotus Cortina driver David Garrett, who with navigator Nick Reynolds led the rally for most of the first day and night. "We had blue skies washed through with occasional showers, wonderful scenery, and a completely new route across north Somerset with Wales beckoning us from far away across the Bristol Channel. Magor was the usual mad plotting panic - three Regularities and four Navigation sections - though there were not too many plotting tricks, then out into Caerwent and the Welsh night, which was brewing up a real storm. In the later night sections, after midnight, the marshals were absolutely heroic, trying to process Liege timers and sign time cards in cold, horizontal driving rain. Unfortunately our navigation came unglued in the latter stages of Wales, and we eventually slid off and hit a tree (quite hard!) at about 3am with a mere half a mile of the fourth and last Nav section to go...so that was that. But I can't wait for next year!"

Organiser Peter Nedin and his team responded admirably to the conditions and achieved a great balance of challenges for newcomers and experienced crews alike. "We didn't lose any sections," said Peter afterwards, "but we did have to have a couple of diversions. The Clunes Forest regularity was cut short because of a landslide! The weather in Wales and Cumbria was appalling and we lost one of the Course Closing Cars, a Vauxhall Vectra, when it hit a flooded road at speed and sucked water into the engine."

The weather wasn't the main obstacle in Scotland - there, the obstacles were large and mobile: Stags. All drivers reported seeing them, some as many as 20 in 10 miles. 1938 MG TA crew Michael and Andrew Marsh reckoned they saw 20 cross the road in front of them: 18 from left to right but only two from right to left; they wondered why. It's amazing the things you come up with to keep your brain awake after three days and two nights on the go! Thankfully, no Stags were hit on the event - though the baggage van helping competitors get their tuxedos to John O'Groats for the finish dinner, reported that a magnificent Stag jumped out of the forest and head-butted the van when it was parked, presumably thinking it was a rival stag - or just spoiling the scenery!

Finishers clamoured to sign up for next year at the end: they'd obviously not read the comment in the Log Book of 'End to Enders' in the bar of the Groats Inn:
"If you've never been End to End, you have no soul; if you've been twice, you have nae brains!"