To join our group you need to be a current IAM member, to join the IAM click here. If you are already an IAM member then please get in touch with our group using the contact us link in the menu.
Fine Driving Skills on Show at Banbury
Sunday 22nd September saw Banbury Market Square transformed from a short stay car park into a tricky slow driving course.
The previous week had been a succession of perfect late summer September days – a cloudless sky and a warming sun. But the day of the Banbury Skills Event started with a distinct air of autumn – lowering clouds, a chilly breeze and a definite hint of rain.
Rotary Club of Banbury Cherwell and Banbury Advanced Motorists group had organised a Driving Skills Event in the Market Square at which all comers could show how adept they were at slow manoeuvring.
Despite the weather, the volunteer stewards donned their hi-vis jackets, took up their 30cm rulers and waited for the stream of intrepid drivers to come and demonstrate their skills in a bid to earn a winner’s cup.
Competitors were challenged to excel in eight driving disciplines. These ranged from a simple parallel park alongside the kerb to the fiendish ‘drive forward for the exact distance it takes for your wheels to make a single revolution’. That last one certainly sorted the sheep from the goats. Mind you, so did the parallel park. The weather did deter many possible contestants from coming along but there were still enough takers to keep the stewards on their toes. That is, apart from a patch of steady rain around lunch time. Among the competitors were a father and daughter competing against each other. The young learner was driving with L plates but still managed to outscore her Dad by quite a measure. And there was the young woman who signed up for the Advanced Driver Course, then took the challenges in a bid to prove that she was already quite a skilled driver – with mixed results.
Everyone who took part enjoyed the challenge and went home with a sense of achievement – along with a few moves to practise quietly on their own. This was before the merger into OAD had been completed. The Banbury Skills Event was the ideal opportunity for ex-members of BAM and OAGAM to work together for the first time. There’s nothing like sheltering from the rain in a shop doorway to encourage a spirit of camaraderie. And coaxing nervous competitors to relax and perform their best is a soft skill already well developed in both groups’ observer teams.
The challenge now will be to meld the best features of each to form a new group identity that will stand OAD in good stead for the future. That’s quite a challenge but both sides are up for it.
So the Skills Event was BAM’s last public outing and it was the first public outing for OAD. A stall at the event introduced local people to the new group and advertised what the group – and IAM RoadSmart - has to offer. By dropping in at the OAD stand at the Banbury Driving Skills Event, six local drivers were able to buy the Advanced Driving Course at a special discount and become Associate Members of OAD.
Thanks go to Rotary Club Banbury Cherwell for initiating this event and all from BAM and OAD who helped to make it all happen.
Back to top
IAM RoadSmart © 2016.