to join Junior Rallying
Twin sisters Charlotte and Jessica Roberts, daughters of British Rally Championship competitor Martin, are the latest youngsters to become involved with Junior Rallying, the scheme to develop the next generation of British rallying talent.
The 14 year-old identical twins won a recent competition run by Junior Rallying in conjunction with the Trefeddian Hotel, for not only a luxury weekend break at the stunning hotel but also, a rally day with Junior Rallying to assess their skills and potential.
Neither Charlotte nor Jessica are strangers to rallying; they have been supporting their father Martin on every event as he competed in a Citroen C2R2 in the 2007 BRC, coming second in the category. He entered the competition on the Junior Rallying stand at the recent Race Retro show and was delighted when Charlotte was picked as the winner.
However, as Charlotte and Jessica are identical twins, giving only one of the 14 years-olds a chance to take part in a Junior Rallying day simply wasn’t on. Martin and Junior Rallying Manager Gemma Price discussed the best way to proceed and it was decided that both girls would take part in the trial day.
Martin has always harboured a hope that the twins would become involved in the sport. However, until he entered the competition on the Junior Rallying stand and became aware of the opportunities available through the scheme including competing in Latvia, he assumed that they would not be able to get onto the rally ladder until much later.
“I couldn’t believe it when I got the call telling me that Charlotte had won the competition,” said Roberts. “Charlotte was the actual winner but I always hoped that she and Jessica would be able to compete together, so it made sense to make sure that they both went through the Junior Rallying induction day together.
“It has been a long-held dream of mine to give the girls the opportunity to develop as a competitive crew but assumed that it would have to wait for several years. However, Junior Rallying means that they will be able to not only gain competition experience well before they would be able to in the UK, they will also receive expert tuition in the key skills required.
“It will be interesting to see how the girls’ skills emerge. Both are used to being in rally cars, as they have always sat in with me on tests. However, Charlotte tends to be the more confident when it come to driving and Jessica has already said she wants to be the co-driver, so this could be the start of something interesting.”
Not only do Charlotte and Jessica have experience of the co-driver’s seat, they also have considerable experience at the controls. Both have driven karts and the family has an off-road buggy that the girls use to develop their car-control skills, setting them up for a competitive future.
Charlotte said; “I think this is excellent and like Jessica, I’m very excited. It will be fantastic to get the opportunity to begin rallying at this age and to do it somewhere like Latvia would be even more exciting.”
Jessica is also understandably excited by the prospect; “Charlotte and I get on very well and it will be interesting to see how we work together in the car. The Junior Rallying test day will be the first time we’ve been together in a rally car at the same time, so we’re both very excited.”
Commenting on the news, Junior Rallying manager and former WRC co-driver Gemma Price said; “I’m delighted that we have two female potential candidates involved. It demonstrates that rallying is not an exclusively male sport. As we’ve seen in the past, a sibling pairing can be a very effective combination and we hope that Charlotte and Jessica will progress through the Junior Rallying programme and begin their competition career with us.”
The date and location for the girls’ trial are to be decided but it will take place in the UK, under the guidance of Junior Rallying’s instructors and Price.
