Rallying call
Rallying call
for diversification
A disused wartime airfield, acres of crumbling concrete, a
remote rural site and years of experience with an exciting
hobby provided the recipe for an unusual diversification
– a rally driving school. Edward Long explains
DESPITE farming highly productive clay, regularly achieving wheat yields of 10t/ha (4t/acre) and having held the Guinness Book of Records wheat yield record, Langley Lawn Farm was struggling to make ends meet when the wheat price plummeted.
"To enable two families to survive on 740 acres we had to do something other than farming as the economics did not stack up with prices at just £55/t ex-combine," says Andrew Clark who with brother Simon run the farm at Langley Green near Saffron Walden, Essex. "We grow combinable crops but are limited as to what else we can have by sticky clay. We have already trimmed inputs as far as we dare, with resistant blackgrass we cannot do more without compromising yields.
"The crunch came 18 months ago when the bank manager suggested we investigate another source of income. He asked what else we could do. We told him we had no ideas, and felt paint balling, karting, mud-buggying, and off-road driving were being overdone and at the time could not come up with a constructive alternative enterprise."
But this meeting was the trigger that fired the brothers imagination and they wondered whether they could exploit their hobby. Both have been involved in motor sports for over 20 years, Simon as a rally driver, Andrew as service chief and mechanic, and the fully-tooled farm workshop has been kept busy in the winter with work on cars.
"Simon had the idea of setting-up a rally driving school; he has competed in the RAC rally and in smaller events at home and abroad over many years. As we had two fully-prepared competition cars on the farm plus part of the disused airfield it seemed a workable proposition. We already had limited experience of teaching the driving skills involved as we had run a handful of ad-hoc courses to fund our rallying, so already had a track-record in the business."
The bank manager liked the idea, was impressed by the business plan, and was sold the notion that it was a cheap way to diversify.
After obtaining planning permission, the first job was to build a half-mile long course with hairpins, long swerving corners and large run-off areas with different surfaces for each stage. It was based on the perimeter track of the former Nuthamsted airfield, around which American B17 bombers taxied before taking off on wartime missions. The plan was to run partly on this flaking surface before crossing onto loose gravel and stone.
Although there were two FIA-approved rally-prepared cars on the farm, others were needed. Then the brothers had a stroke of luck.
"We decided participants needed to feel special and realise it was a professionally-run school so wanted to provide them with fire-proof overalls and FIA-specification helmet with intercom," Andrew Clark says. "We went to Kent to buy overalls with our logo on. Shortly afterwards we had a call to ask if we wanted to buy three cars from a rally school that had recently closed down. We bought a Ford Sierra Cosworth and two front-wheel-drive Mk 4 Escorts for a knockdown price. We then spent over £1000 each on them plus lots of workshop time to bring them up to FIA specification with improved roll cages, Kevlar rally seats, four-point safety harnesses, adjustable suspensions and fire extinguishers."
Meanwhile the Clarks decided they needed to be qualified to deal with any emergency. They signed up for a basic paramedic training course offered by Mid Anglia First Aid and Fire Training, the company that trains paramedics flying with the East Anglian Air Ambulance.
Once qualified they opened for business as the Langley Park Rally School in November 2001. They immediately applied to join the British Association of Rally Schools but will have to wait until the end of the first year of operations before they can become accepted as members.
The new business is a family-run affair. While Simon instructs, Andrew does the administration, acts as host, and makes the coffee. His sons Robert, who is a Lotus-trained engineer with a day-job in motor racing with TWR, and brother Matthew plus their cousin Sam Fordham who farms at Radwinter, act as service crew and provide back-up.
Publicity from the first course in the local papers has triggered a lot of interest and future bookings are looking healthy. Both individual and corporate bookings are taken for either a half or full day of training. Most participants have never driven a fully-prepared rally car before, so one-to-one tuition is tailored to their individual needs.
To widen the customer base the Essex school has forged links with an events company that runs a karting centre in London Docklands so a double-barrelled package of different motoring experiences can be offered. A similar arrangement has been made with a company run by former local farming neighbour David House who specialises in offering adventure experiences.
Simon (left) and Andrew (with clipboard) Clark with the latest batch of rallying school pupils. Bookings are looking healthy, they say.
Cheap thrill… Sierra Cosworth was bought for a knock-down price from a rally school that had recently closed down.