Stay on track off-road with Robin

Robin's set to allow Jeff to test his limits in the rally car

Derby's Dean, Jeff Cuttell, was wondering how to demonstrate his belief in stretching yourself to the limit.

Getting behind the wheel of a rally car with expert driver Robin Kellard seemed one of those good ideas at the time.

Certainly Jeff found his driving skills stretched by a session speeding round the Everyman centre's track followed by a mud-slinging slalom in a 4x4.

Life's about risk, he likes to maintain - and not about missing out by listening to your fears.

With a Ph.D in nuclear physics, Jeff could easily have settled for a safe career in scientific research.

Instead he chose a career in Christian ministry, and pursued it in typically unorthodox style.

So, as well as parish ministry he's worked in broadcasting with the BBC and spent almost a decade as chaplain to a parachute regiment, as well as seeing active service in the Balkans.

His own experiences have fuelled his belief that if you stretch yourself you walk taller. For him living life as a Christian hasn't been the safe, comfortable option, and he feels that the Church gets it wrong if it sells itself that way.

In Jeff's view Christianity is an exciting, risky choice, not, as he puts it, a refuge for the conventional or feeble-hearted. But "get it right and it's thrilling and satisfying".

There were plenty of thrills to be had on the track under Robin's supervision: though Jeff was amused to find his mentor more like an airline pilot than an adrenalin junkie.

"He basically scared me to death for 20 minutes, while talking as though he could be saying 'and today we're travelling at 28,000 feet and we'll be cruising at 600 knots'."

Once round the track and Jeff's made his mark

The centre doesn't just take adventurous Anglican clergymen out for a spin: it takes children rallying in its fleet of Lamborghinis and Ferraris.

For Robin part of the fun is watching the expression on parents' faces as he sets about training the next generation to respect the art of driving - an art he's honed since driving "anything with wheels" round his dad's farm.

Now an accomplished rally driver, Robin's eloquent about the attraction of challenging yourself and having to draw on your inner resources. He agrees with Jeff that it can have something spiritual about it.

So, it seems speed, skill and a certain spirituality make up the experience for both teacher and pupil - along with that essential ingredient for boys everywhere: industrial quantities of mud.

You'll see lots of the latter in the picture - but you'll also see evidence that Jeff's theory may hold water in some thrilled, and satisfied, smiles.