GRAEME Tonkin, in his own words, is always up for an adventure – and his most recent one might have topped them all.
The Gorae farmer, wife Jenny and their Geelong-based son Jayden were all recently in Scotland for a unique motoring experience.
Graeme and Jayden Tonkin were the driver and navigator respectively of a Volkswagen Golf GTi car that took part in the Scottish Malts Rally at the end of April – an event which harnesses the spectacular scenery of the Scottish Highlands, the world’s finest whisky distilleries and a “race” unlike most others.
Instead of trying to be the first car from go to whoa, the rally involves a fine sense of timing to maintain a speed that will see contestants try to meet exact times in each leg of the rally, a task made even harder by the fact they are travelling on public roads, have to account for motorised and non-motorised traffic on some pretty narrow thoroughfares, and might have to contend with rally judges hidden somewhere en route ready to penalise those caught travelling over the speed limit.
Then there are the tests as well – these involved set tasks where to do them correctly and quickest was the aim.
Making the Tonkins’ task harder was they had to drive the rally in an unfamiliar vehicle – an “arrive and drive” car to use the parlance – which they only got into on the morning of the start.
But their unfailing enthusiasm and willingness to jump every hurdle ended well – the Tonkins won the Spirit of the Rally Award for the enjoyment and fun spirit they showed during the event.
It was all in five days’ work for Graeme Tonkin, whose other adventures include flying in a Spitfire over southern England, walking the Kokoda Trail, three Variety Bashes and canal boat cruising in England and Scotland.
So why do it?
“I’d watched it on You Tube for a long time and I thought if I ever do it I’m not going over there for a day,” Graeme Tonkin said.
“They (rally organisers) have events all over England and Europe, the biggest one is from (Beijing) to Paris.
“Because my Mum was of Scottish ancestry I thought Scotland would be a good place to do it.”
The problem was there are only two events in Scotland – the Flying Scotsman for pre-World War II cars which also involves qualifying via a couple of previous events “because the cars are worth a small fortune” and the Scottish Malts.
That made the choice easy for Mr Tonkin, but when?
“My son (Jayden) came home for Christmas and said he’d entered me,” Graeme Tonkin said.
“Then Jenny organised the six weeks around it (the rally lasts for five days) so it made it seven weeks all up, and it was very enjoyable.”
The adventure begins
Getting to the start was an achievement in itself.
The only entrant in an arrive and drive car, that vehicle was initially a Triumph TR4.
It was brought up from London on a trailer and arrived the day before the start at the historic Gleneagles Hotel.
“They rolled it off the back of the trailer and said we’d better take it up to scrutineering,” Mr Tonkin said.
“We got up there and I was having trouble with the gears.
“I tried to reverse and couldn’t get it to at all and they said we’d better take it to the mechanics.”
This was 2pm the day before the start and after looking it over the problem was diagnosed – a new aftermarket (not made by the manufacturer of the car) clutch had been installed but not an aftermarket bell housing (which covers it) as was supposed to happen, so the mechanics couldn’t get it to line up with the gears.
“They said ‘we’re going to have to get another car up for you, what do you want’,” Mr Tonkin said.
The Volkswagen Golf GTi was selected and was driven up from London overnight – the Tonkins got their first sight of it on race morning.
“We saw it at quarter to eight, got into it at eight o’clock and we were away,” Mr Tonkin said.
A rally like no other
The rally, as the name might hint, was essentially a tour of 12 distilleries – though Mr Tonkin isn’t a particular fan of the tipple – and the family enjoyed the hospitality as well at the various places they stayed at.
“There’s that many distilleries in Scotland it’s not funny,” Mr Tonkin said.
“They seem to have one in every town.”
But there was no time for drinks of any kind while on the road – Jayden had to navigate roads they had never seen before from very basic instructions in the navigator’s book and his father had to make sure he was up to speed, literally.
“It’s not a race, it’s a regulatory (timed run between two points),” Graeme Tonkin said.
“They’ll say ‘if you do this right you’ve got 25 minutes to do this part of the regulatory’ for example, but you’re on public roads which are very, very narrow.
“You go down tracks I’d say 90 per cent of Scottish people will never go down.
“Your average speed might be 40 miles per hour (72 km/hr) but you’ve got to contend with farmers, sheep, cows, silage wagons, livestock trucks and other things, and you can’t pass them.
“You have to back up until you find a spot on the road you can pass.
“When you’re going backwards the navigation is still counting metres and you’re thinking are you turning at the right spot.
“It’s not hard to get on the wrong roads and you really don’t know when you are wrong – you have no idea whether you’re going to drive through a farmyard.
“You don’t know until you actually go down past the control people and the timing people whether you’re on the right track or not.
“And they hide behind corners as well – you might think you’re a bit behind and need to speed up in a section but you don’t know where they are and they can catch you out.
“You’ve got to stop and get paperwork signed as well.”
Then there were the tests – one was at an airstrip were cones were placed on the tarmac with some trick navigations for the navigator to work out the exact route.
In that case Jayden had to start on foot some way behind the car, run to it, and when both he and his father had their hands on the dashboard they got the green light to start.
“We had no idea what we were doing but improved every day,” Graeme Tonkin said.
Overall the Tonkins finished 29th out of 37 starters, though as Mr Tonkin said “we were just happy to get to the finish each night and get dinner”.
“It was very enjoyable, very well organised, the scenery was brilliant and the accommodation and meals were great,” he said.
Wife Jenny agreed.
“It was a once in a lifetime experience,” she said.
But wait, there’s more
The Tonkins’ adventure didn’t end at the Gleneagles Hotel that night – later on the trip they took in perhaps the world’s most iconic motorcycle races, the Isle of Man TT.
They even drove a few laps of the course (the races are held on public roads on the island) – “it makes Bathurst look like a Sunday drive,” Mrs Tonkin said – and took their chances among the spectators, often the proverbial hair’s breadth from the racers themselves as they came whizzing past at unfathomable speeds on the tight circuit.
“It was just a brilliant thing to watch,” Mrs Tonkin said.
“We even met Peter Hickman (who would go on to win four of the races, including the main event, and finish runner-up in three others) and he even told us where the best place to view it from would be.”
As for Mr Tonkin, he reckons he’s all out of adventures now, though given his track record, who knows?
