UK best and toughest race – I ditched it!

I’m naming it the vehicle destroyer…absolute carnage at the Scottish Borders Hill Rally in the Bowlers Defender. BUT I managed to have the least damaged car in the class and claim 3rd place podium in my final UK Defender round. Chuffed with that. Watch the full video now and also find out what’s next for me in racing.

Join me for the 7th and final round of the Bowler Defender UK Rally Series as I take on the gnarly terrain of the Scottish Borders Hill Rally.

As the competitiveness has continued to increase over the last 6 rounds, the pressure of making the podium has reached the all time high. And just to make this final round even more challenging, we will be racing through the night and the day with no pace notes… Which means bare minimal navigation and having absolutely no idea what the track is going to throw my way! I will be going in blind!

This is my first year ever racing in any car let alone this 300hp rally monster so you can say my nerves were ever increasing as i took the start line for this final race.

Will I have what it takes to gain the last critical points i need to make it on the podium of this wildly fun and exciting new 4×4 adventure? Watch and find out!

You can check out my other Bowler videos here:

It’s not just a Land Rover… Bowler Defender explained

My crash

Welsh rally

First time racing 4×4

My new addiction is like a legal high

If you made it this far, comment and join the conversation

Supported by
Teng Tools #getorganised https://www.tengtools.com/
Cardo Systems #askforcardo https://cardosystems.rfrl.co/5gxzq and use code “TGOAB“
Michelin #teammichelin
Revolution Race
CTEK Chargers

Edit & Thumbnail – Team KapDx Media – (Suruj Barman & Arjun Tumung)

Music Credits: Epidemic Sounds https://www.epidemicsound.com/referral/si5fin/

Tracks:
ES_Glynnis – Coma Svensson.mp3
ES_Chateau – BLUE STEEL.mp3
ES_Cool Shoes Man – Tigerblood Jewel.mp3
ES_Different Times – Jett Everill.mp3
ES_Forsaken – Under Earth.mp3
ES_Just A Little Spark (Instrumental Version) – Sven Karlsson.mp3
ES_Nothing But Mine (Instrumental Version) – Parellite.mp3
ES_200 Dont’s (Instrumental Version) – Conditional.mp3
ES_Erratic – Sven Karlsson 5.mp3

Timestamp:
00:00 – Kickoff: Rally Introduction
01:43 – At the Bivouac: Pre-Race Prep
06:02 – Racing Action: Stages 1, 2 & 3
10:51 – Unique Bowler Carwash
15:10 – The Final Challenge: Last Stage
16:43 – Through the Night: Racing in Darkness
17:36 – Advantages of a National Race License
20:07 – Unexpected Twist: Rear Tyre Puncture
24:35 – Off Course Adventure
27:22 – Finish Line: Final Check-In

🚗 Subscribe for more adventures: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheGirlOnABike

#BowlerDefenderRally #RallyRacing #OffroadAdventure #MotorsportJourney #NightRally #thegirlonabike

I’m Vanessa rck I am back for the final round of the UK Defender Series in Scotland you can probably tell by what I’m wearing did it’s a little bit cold okay it is cold you can see my breath but just not at this angle great story Vanessa anyway I’m going to be getting

Into the defender this is a probably the top event to finish the UK series round with it’s the Scottish Hill rally and it’s going to be by the sounds of it the most challenging one I’ve Done Yet we don’t have Pace notes which means I haven’t got Chris and my navigator

Telling me exactly what’s coming up it’s going to be really varied and pretty technical terrain we’ve got night stages as well as day stages so we are going to be reading the terrain as quickly as we can riding into it blind and doing the best we can H now if you watched my

Video last time I was in Scotland might have possibly maybe had a little lie down um I still remember the slow motion feeling when I was in that and yeah I put the car on the side if the lie down wasn’t obvious and I remember going over

In slow motion and on a motorbike you just kind of move your body weight and PE it upright and it was like oh oh oh what are we doing now and Chris was like nothing we get out of the car but that is not going to happen again this

Weekend I have learned from it I am building my driving database so yeah the cars are all ready we even have Christmas lights Bower have gone full on and we’ve got spaghetti bolog Andes in the biver for dinner tonight so tomorrow morning is going to be race let’s do

This right we have FasTrack jump to the morning I know it’s still dark and I’m still in my uh cozy thing that is because it is dark and it is raining but it’s really early in the morning so the cars are all ready to go uh and it’s

Talking about food again I think one of my biggest priorities in life is just rols around food but Bo always have Street feast in the bivac so I’m going to go get myself a bacon bun uh big boys there it’s so epic we’ve got eight Defenders racing this event and it’s

Going to be pretty tight there’s a lot of reading the terrain required on this event because it is not pace notes which puts a lot more bonus onto the driver picking the correct lines and reading what the corners are doing and I’m hoping that maybe my motorcycle

Background is going to give me a little bit of support with that because Automotive you have to read the lines and if you don’t read the lines it spits you out for breakfast and you feel it so right let’s go get some Bacon buckled up in the rally car we have a very different kind of setup today so I mentioned that there are no Pace notes so Chris has his map and he’s done some prep on it to highlight some of the more aggressive Corners that we can expect it’s quite a zoomed out map

Which means it doesn’t really give too many Clues but there are some Clues and we’re going to be trying to work as a team to read the terrain so I’ve got a little bit more to think about cuz I’m actually moving the car which gives Chris a couple of extra moments in the

Brain to maybe see Clues and the tree lines or the camera of the hills and look ahead and then throw additional information that is worth highlighting to me to help us as a team keep it not in the ditch we’ve been told that the ditches are inviting but we mustn’t

Accept the invite uh the trees want you for dinner but we’re not hungry but it’s going to be a good race we got This okay I’m feeling a little bit smug on the start line here because it’s absolutely chucking it down it’s pretty cold it’s not as cold as it could be for this time of year in Scotland but it isn’t warm but in the defender we have

All of the electrics that you’d get in a Land Rover so we’ve got Heating and automatic wipers so when we hit big puddles he’s going to sort out for us hello morning just check your wristbands please wristbands yes I can deploy a wristband uh there we go that’s great

Thank you very much thank you cool we’re ready to go start lines up in front 5 4 3 2 1 He amazing we’re back in after stage one two and three and I was pre-warned that this was going to be probably one of my favorite events and I uh somehow however this far into the season I’m still not nailed these hands devices maybe I’ll just talk to you with my helmet on I’ll

Just talk to you with my helmet on um that was amazing there was loads of Fast Track where you could tell if you lost the clear line it was going to eat you pull you into the banks but like every I don’t know 100 m they’re just like cool

Let’s just angle you off into the ditch the woods the Quarry up and over stuff and you’re properly having to look at where the line is but The Defenders and a lot of these cars are quite big nose wise so you’re like trying to see over your Bonnet as you’re cresting over

Something completely blind unbelievable what this car has sucked up out there not a single fault the wipers were automatically going when we hit water uh Chris was helping me read the lines buzzing now every cloud has a silver lining and I’m going to say this really quietly a competitor out there

Unfortunately had an issue which caused a bit of an issue of a cars behind and we managed to get there just at the right time to get round them which might help our time overall I haven’t looked at the results but I’m um I’m sneakily thinking that

Maybe we’re not doing too badly and considering I’m new to this and a lot of the guys racing in The Defender Series have got some serious experience I’m going to take that little win right I’m going to get myself a coffee and get my head out of my helmet

One day I’m going to be less of a 2-year-old and be able to get it off really easily there we go let you go right at the end of talking I get it off awesome right coffee time and a snack and then we go out again we’ve got

Another there’s eight stages today and we’ve done three quick quick maths we’ve got that left to go Woo guys have literally jumped on big boy he hasn’t faulted on that whole three stages absolutely incredible there was one bit where I was like Chris he smells really hot and he’s like that’s the amount of water and mud there big frown assis and it’s all burning off so

Don’t panic I’m like cool okay keep going keep going uh but he hasn’t folded at all I can’t explain what it’s like in these tight quaries you’re in first gear so it’s really slow and you’re like peeping over the top of something completely blind of what’s going over

And you could just go over and then it’s suddenly like a turn to the side and you’re just like just follow ah reading it as you go it’s so good everyone said I was going to love this event I love this event after the last race I thought I

Should show you I’ve got some fresh rubber on and my goodness the grip from the sort of terrain of how slipp it is today I’m very grateful to having some fresh uh F Goodridge monster traction it’s uh about to go into the next stage

We had a little bit of a stage hold up because I’m presuming there was an issue we’ve had quite a few cars breaking down or rolling including one of the Defenders but all the drivers are all good and it’s looking like the stage has started up again so I’m going to get in

The car and we will be carrying on with the day [Applause] 3 2 1 [Applause] You know like as a kid you get really excited about going in the car wash we’re in the car wash but it’s a bowler style car wash got John on the big yeah look at John with his little hose oh we’re done oh we’re done I got

To go we got to go I’m going we’re going we’re being hustled we’re in the service again for the night stage the massive laser headlights are going on we’re going back out at 4:10 so it’s not going to be quite dark for the next stage but we’ve got a pretty short

Service between this and then the night stages that is going to make a massive difference to my ability to race at night now a little bit of an update we have eight Defenders unfortunately two of them have had a role I’m going to discreetly try and uh

Show you one of them because um it’s got some love marks let’s just say that one of them for yor is still out there he’s got to be recovered we’ve got a few things like cable tie reconstructions on the front of bumpers it’s really brutal and aggressive out there thankfully I’ve

Been picking some good lines and big boy is completely Ely un hurt so far I’m absolutely loving everybody told me this is going to be my favorite it is phenomenal so the Scottish borders Hill rally if you’re into cars and racing this is one to do and of course you can

Get a bowler yourself and do this whole series and it comes with all of these chaos right so it’s the orange one here we’re going to really discreetly just wander over here nothing to see nothing to see here this side looks pretty good looks like a

Normal normal Defender but if we come to the front oh there’s a there’s a crowd of people we’re just going to casually walk this way to the toilets hello you having fun in the toilet it’s amazing that’s the wobbly toilet as well is wobbly toilet it’s quite an experience it’s called the

Icelandic toilet at the moment it mimics earthquakes whilst you’re in the Thunder box oh amazing okay you can see I’ve been spotted retract run Away good service we have hoops cleaning the headlights so that we’ve got more power po pow it is getting dark the iPhone can see more light than my eyes so it doesn’t look dark yet but it is thanks sir no problem how’s Hoops doing epic epic it’s good gone into the night

Stages now there’s just Su about in the woods that you know you should be a bed you know what I mean but when you see lights all through the woods you get I don’t know you get Red Mist it’s uh it’s cool it’s a good time Scotland’s a one

It’s pretty appropriate right now your face is actually glowing red from the headlight in front of us you got like the Red Mist quite a good light Yeah it’s you’re right we should be in bed no we should be out here racing cars in the woods8 7 6 5 4 3 Oh It is quite dark now I we have one last stage it’s going smoothly so far someone else has had an issue on the stage so we had a little bit of a hold up but we’re moving again Chris is currently just having a quick tweak out in front of the

Light bar oh he wants me to put the lights on hang on look at this is that it we’re uh just lowering the Laser Bar a tiny bit no raising it a tiny bit so we get a little bit more long field Vision but it seems to be

Going well so far at this point in the rally it’s about just making sure that you don’t come off the track you come off the line by 6 in and it sucks you in and unfortunately we’ve got uh I think three four four Defender crashes two

Rolls and two Just In Ditches and I’m going to do my best to make sure that we are not doing the same let’s Chris coming back in well on we have light well them right Let’s Race Yay we’re alive and we’re the right way up and that was Epic It’s probably worth mentioning a couple of extra complexities that today is thrown at us that is the lovely weather it has been very wet and rainy and as we went into the night stages tonight you’ve got the combination of darkness and rain and you get kind of this

Reflection on the raindrops in front of you you got a bit of fog which just all adds to how focused you need to be keeping the car going again though it’s all part of building our driver database it’s exactly why we’re here doing it with Bowa it’s just awesome I’m buzzing

You can probably guess it is still raining up here in Scotland big boy is pristine thankfully I’ve had zero damage not even to his sump underneath that dent there wasn’t me that was someone else another time Yan’s car has been rebuilt which is absolutely incredible the guys worked until 300 a.m. getting

Him back together amazing uh it’s got new Wings new lights wind screen all kinds of stuff that’s a committed team and a well organized Supply team but we are going to get back out there day two up in Scotland we’re about to face the final four stages the borer team have

Load of experience all around us and I got some pretty solid advice from John at the start of this one and that is that this terrain is ruthless it will eat up cars and it is definitely doing that and his advice was just come home clean maybe take 10% off really look at

Your line and I’m just going to continue to do that today I don’t want to jinx too much but at the moment I’m sitting second overall in the bowlers I have now earned my national race license so what does that mean you have to do a certain

Amount of UK based races to get your National license and that then enables you to go and do International races and if we think about the the bowler Defender series is all about building you up as a rally driver so it means this year UK rounds next year European

Rounds and then we’re going to be doing some serious driving 2 1 Oh my God Chris is in the back of the car you probably get a clue from what he’s doing uh might have just clipped my rear tire on this massive rock that was on a tight leftand Corner coming out of a quarry area I just nipped it the BF good rdge

Ties have been absolute workhorses all year I haven’t had a single puncture so it’s about time uh now you’re probably thinking well you’re a little princess aren you sat in the car while CU is out there and St rain replacing it that is because the car is in bowler mode now

The defender rally car is based on a Land Rover Defender it is a model that comes straight out of the Land Rover Factory and then bowler do a whole load of things to the car you can check out my other video on what they actually do

To turn it into a rally car but the electrics are all in there now Land Rover have designed designed it to do as much as it possibly can to go through all these terrains and conditions and help the driver out Bower have basically put it into bowler mode which shuts all

Of that electronic stuff off and turns it into a raw 300 brake horsepower rally machine so if we want to put it into the right mode put handbrake on we’d have to take it out of bowler mode which doesn’t take long but it’s a whole series of

Like Pat your head and rub your tummy kind of thing so I’m just staying in the car with my foot on the brake which means he can uh change the tire so he is out there changing the tire like a hero while I have my foot on the brake and we

Are currently doing it in Deadtime because then we won’t lose any time or penalties we’ve actually got the stage in front of us backed up I don’t if you can see it up there but you can see all the competitors where’s my hand here all lined up so obviously some has had an

Issue on the stage as I’ve said before this rally is uh eating cars and it’s eating our tire but but we’re all good we’re in the game and yeah I just nipped it good learning curve for me I’ve been pretty hot on my lines but just mess

That by like 4 in 3 in that’s all it was we’re all good we carry a spare B will have all the equipment in the back you got a little power tool you’ve got a Jack and I’ve got a re handy Navigator we’re in the Game [Applause] A So we saw something flapping over the front of the Bonnet slightly and we were like I think it’s the uh front bumper yeah I lost a little bit of trim on the front and the laser light so possibly a little bit in trouble but I didn’t hit anything it got swept off

By a deep puddle so I’m thinking it maybe possibly wasn’t fully on I don’t know but anyway it’s all good we took one hit to the underside you can see a little bit of a dent underneath um guys are giving him a service and once over

We’ve got a 1 hour service and then we’ll be heading out for the last two stages that last stage is a really long one yeah it’s getting pretty tight but I just want to bring it home safe so I’ve actually backed off the Speed and uh just focusing on making sure I Finish go go go go what do I do go back fast which way no go forward can you drive I’m scared no no what do I do go no go to the left yeah and over to the right to the right they’re not going to tip over straight it’s going to tip go

On go on go go on go go go go okay yeah pick out how do we do it just turn it off there we go now go into reverse Drive going to go up there and then back to the left okay I’m going to have to give you a bit more of an update when we get back in but that stage stage 13 wasn’t quite so successful ended in a ditch sideways we just turned the Land Rover back into its

Land Rover mode and it just crawled out and got itself out the ditch pretty effortlessly actually whereas bowler mode it wouldn’t because everything spins up and then then we lost quite a few minutes trying to get it back into Bowa mode because it’s this whole rub your tummy kind of situation and then

The next Quarry we got a tire uh the rocks are properly exposed out there so we we took um front left tire and then had to limp limp to the finish so not ideal but we’re still in um we’re going to get the new tire on and then uh we’ll

Keep going we’ve got round two I’m back in the car Chris is jacking it up over There and I got my foot on the brake another another tireo another bit of good Rd all terrain eats the dust or gets chewed by a rock it’s probably more fitting We have Smiles on our faces which means we’ve made it through the final time check we’re now in park fery is it is it Park F me yep we’re in park F now so until the final results are released there’s like a period where the cars are

Kept in a park for me so that if there’s anyone objects they can insect the cars or something yeah something like that so we’re just hanging out um but drumwell we are looking at the live results obviously it’s not the final final because of the penalty blah blah blah

But it’s looking like we are third place third place heck yes we made it on the podium in the last round of the UK Defender series I mad CH with that I was hoping for sixth or seventh place if you look at the drivers that I’m up against in

The Defenders and our kind of paper CV of experience so I’m really tough with that I know I didn’t necessarily do the end totally tily I’ll tell you a little bit more about the ditch when I get out the car and show you the front bumper

It’s not bad it’s not bad we basically I’ll just tell you now so we’re on a straight I know I crashed it on a straight but if you go off the clean line by even like three or six in it just sucks you in and I just didn’t have

The strength on the wheel once I was going and then I kind of not really froze up but I kind of froze up and hit the brake a little bit more than I should because then you’re going into a ditch and there was an end to the ditch

Wasn’t there if there had hadn’t been an end maybe I could have tried to not ride it out but anyway hard in no tree stumps or rocks so we’re then in the ditch and you’re kind of not over but we were we were properly over line on our side yeah kind of like

Yeah but this is a Land Rover and they are monsters at off-road so we just put it into full technology locking differentials feeling traction and the car just kind of good good good built found traction I had to use the front wheels a little bit to get

The wheels to dig in and we kind of climbed up out of this ditch pulled off the track reversed back in past the ditch carried on going and pulled off into the tape to put it back into bow mode which is where we lost a big trans

Time actually we just there’s a there’s a whole sheet here um sorry this thing this whole sheet here of the instructions on how to put it into bowler mode and it it is kind of like rubbing your head and packing your tummy and sticking your tummy out should I

Just get out and show them what happened to the front bumper just as well all right okay right P can you hold that there I’m going to climb out oh we got a shot glass they hadn’t got any whiskey though right oh we’re kind of on the

Side of the track so I’ve got to clamber out with a heavy door right okay let’s go look at the car I haven’t really properly looked at it either so Moment of Truth how bad is it can you tell me do I need to freak

Out ah oh that’s not so bad so the bumper the bumper is a little bit damaged but big boy is Bower’s kind of Workhorse kind of demo car and the front bumper was in a pretty bad way already not from me um so it’s just going to

Prompt them to put a new one on right oh bowler I’m really sorry but the rest of him he looks so pretty and there’s no there’s nothing down the side or anything he’s an absolute incredible car I have to say that this is definitely my favorite event in the UK

Round it just feels like so much driving time and I don’t know the it’s just been amazing high five dude third place I have made it to the finish line of what I would say is the car Destroyer around the Carnage out there unfortunately big boy got a little bit

Of that Carnage uh first thing this morning we lost part of the front bumper and our Laser Bar which is a little bit not ideal but anyway replaceable and then we’ve had two punctures today so I’ve definitely really reemphasized the learning of putting where your tries are

Is really really important one of them was a a rock that you know I deserve that puncture it just went and the second one I don’t really know what I hit it was so dug out by those last couple of rounds that it was just very aggressive on the cars I also possibly

Maybe learned that you can crash into a straight line wasn’t really a crash but if you go off the clean line by 30 cm even that it can just suck you in and it was a f straight and I just pulled slightly off the clean line and just got

Sucked into the ditch and then we were suddenly not on our side in the ditch I’ll be honest Mojo was possibly a little bit kind of hit by that at that point it was like right I’ve got to make the Finish Line rain it in a little bit

More and keep it safe and then got another puncture anyway the the short story of this long story is that it was an absolutely epic event I loved it the car has been a dream as always bowler have kept me going in every service with food with the car the weather’s actually

I think we I think this is sunshine that we’ve actually got right now and I’m in part FY I think I might be on the podium as well stay tuned so third overall in our class for the boulder Defender Challenge Series is Vanessa Ruck and Chris [Applause] cing