A 17-year-old student from North Yorkshire, who already has an impressive record in the junior military, is forging a new career in the high-speed world of car rallying, writes Larry Carter.

Georgina Smith, from Northallerton, is currently studying at Northallerton College for physical education and photography A-levels. She also works part time at the Village Inn in Brompton as a waitress and in addition, has achieved the status of Sergeant in the Air Cadets and is RAF Leeming’s Station Commander Cadet.

After competing in a number of Malton Motor Club 12-car navigational events, where she won best newcomer last year, Georgina took the next big step of co driving for her dad Andrew in their Ford Escort Mk2 on the recent Jack Frost Stages Rally at Croft.

“When we arrived at the circuit at around 5.30am, my nerves were fairly normal and we went through scrutineering and signing on okay. But as our start time of 9.08am arrived, I started to get really nervous!” admitted Georgina.

With some help plotting information onto the stage maps by fellow Northallerton competitors Graeme Bell and Russ Radford, Georgina was soon into the routine, helped by her experience on the road events which place a lot of responsibility on navigators.

“The first stage was all about me getting used to reading the circuit map and how it all worked," she said. "It was fairly easy considering I thought it was going to be hard. We set off and the circuit was quite slippery, but we made it round without any problems. Once I had got round the first lap my nerves had gone and I wasn’t scared anymore.”

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But conditions took an unexpected turn for the worse as heavy snow arrived just as competitors were heading to the start of the following stage.

“The second stage was the worst because it had started snowing and I was very nervous because it would have been very easy to just spin off," she said. "When it was our turn to start, we seemed to go nowhere as all the car would do was wheel spin. We had the wrong tyres on as it turned out and we were sliding about everywhere. At one point we completely lost grip and we slid off. My dad and I were just sat there laughing while we tried getting going again."

As the day went on, Georgina got more confident before eventually helping Andy to reach the finish in 38th place overall and fourth in class, just missing out on the third place trophy.

“The day was more enjoyable than I thought it would be as I gradually got more confident going out because I knew what to expect," she added. "It was a very cold day but despite the conditions, I really enjoyed it and can’t wait to do it again.”

So will she be venturing out into the forests for tomorrow's Riponian Rally?

“I hope to be out watching and maybe someday I will get the chance to compete in the forests," she said. "Instead, I’m planning to use the day practicing my photography skills to help with my studies."