Night Stage

There’s something special and unique about Trophy night stages. I think it’s partly the smell of the forest at night – somehow more earthy and leafy – or perhaps it’s the fact that you’re surrounded by patches of impenetrable dark which suddenly leap into life as a vehicle crests a rise and turns black night into slices of day with a bank of 150 watt spotlights or razor sharp LED light bars. You get a flash of intense colour which quickly turns back into monochrome with only a pair of intense red lights quickly receding away. You get the sweet sound of a hardworking motor bouncing and echoing off the trees and seeming to come back to you more than once. Luminous marshals flicker through the trees as you walk through the trees. It’s a very different experience and something not to be missed.

Competitors, already muddy and fatigued by a full Trophy day, get a couple of precious hours to eat something and maybe take a quick nap. Well, let me correct that  – the lucky ones do. Other less fortunate teams need every minute of the time between their Trophy Day stages and the Night Stage to work on their cars. You see them dropping with tiredness, smeared with old oil, spanners hanging out of their pockets, glugging at water bottles, cramming down bananas and still wearing their encrusted boots – and then you see all that fatigue magically melt away as they wait for the marshal to wave them off and the adrenaline tap is turned fully on again. The Night Stage is underway, you’ve got to think and move fast, you’ve got to be strong and determined and hard and the competitors are as psyched up as they ever were. It’s a famously tough event and these are famously tough people.