Media team must finish 3 night rallies in 7 days to qualify for world famous event, with snow and ice forecastNational newspaper journalist Byron Young has just seven days in which to complete three hazardous night rallies as a navigator. He needs to finish these events in order to collect the three vital signatures required to upgrade his national rally licence to international status, in time for the Monte Carlo Rally in January 2011.Driver and motor sport TV pundit Tony Jardine set Byron Young the challenge in August, with the Daily Mirror Sports Editor Dean Morse headlining the quest as ‘Monte Carlo or Bust’ in a one page article in the paper four weeks ago. Young has not had time to compete in any national rallies since September due to the crammed Formula One calendar, the sport which he covers for the Daily Mirror.The forthcoming triple-header of events will be made harder by the forecast for near arctic conditions in Britain over the next two weeks, with even harsher conditions expected in the North which is exactly where the team is headed. This weekend Olly Marshall will lead his York-based ProSpeed team to the fast North Yorkshire forest stages of Dalby where snow has already fallen, and previous RAC rallies have slithered over the icy surfaces. Jardine and Young will be competing in the Kall Kwik Rally which starts in Dalby this Friday night (26 November) and finishes in Pickering on Saturday evening.On the following Friday night the Kumho Tyres backed ProSpeed Ford Fiesta will tackle the daunting Grizedale Stages in the pitch black of the Lake District. It was over these challenging stages that the legendary Colin McRae survived some huge crashes in the RAC rallies of the nineties. When this rally finishes on Saturday night the team will head straight to Scotland for the Galloway Hills Rally on Sunday 5 December and the latter stages of the Glengap, Cairn Edward and Dalbeattie forests will be driven at full speed as dark again descends. The Daily Mirror / ProSpeed team have to finish all three events in order to collect the three essential upgrade signatures needed for co-driver Young to achieve international rally status, or there will be no Monte Carlo Rally for the Daily Mirror team - something the news outlet would be bitterly disappointed about given the significance of the rally and that it is the event’s 100th birthday. Star drivers from both the worlds of rallying and Formula One are expected to take part, including Robert Kubica, Kimi Raikkonen, Francois Delecour and Didier Auriol.Twickenham-based Young says he is starting to feel nervous, “As a veteran of just one rally held on a balmy summer afternoon I am now being thrown in the deep end. Or should that be the frozen end? The Daily Mirror’s rally challenge is really picking up pace now and Tony and I are facing sub-zero temperatures, snow and ice in three rallies crammed into seven days.“Someone told me I was mad when I started this. And that was before anyone mentioned doing it in the darkness and snow. I’m beginning to wonder whether they are right. And it was only days ago I was in Abu Dhabi in the 40 degree heat!”ProSpeed boss Olly Marshall added, “We couldn’t have better conditions to try and replicate just some of Monte Carlo’s many challenges.” The former Junior World Rally competitor who has experienced the rigors of the famous rally continued, "We will have snow and ice which I am sure our Kumho Tyres will be well equipped to deal with, we have the night stages which will test Byron to the limit as he tries to navigate in the dark, and there is the very real prospect of fog and mist. Three rallies in seven days will test the team and its resources but Byron will need to dig really deep for stamina. This is a great yet small test because the Monte Carlo Rally will sap every last bit of his energy over four days and nights in the Alps over snow, black ice, slush, dry tarmac and there are huge drops off the side of mountains. Concentration is essential.”