Jocelyn Jones was selected from six scholarship finalists competing at Bicester Motion to win full training and funding to navigate expert drivers in three 2026 HERO-ERA rallies, whilst also attending selected Motorsport UK Academy courses. The other finalists who produced such a close contest were; George Simmons (16, Rustington, Brighton), Elliot Medley (20, Alresford, Hampshire) Oliver Sunderland (17,Fleet, Hampshire) runner up Max Denny (18, Hereford City), Tilly Windsor (16, North Shropshire). They all impressed the expert rally panel of Guy Woodcock, James Phillips, Gethin Phillips, Julia Perry, Tony Jardine, Gemma Bray and championship winning navigator Ian Canavan after they were put through rigorous tests.

The finalists went through a full day of monitored training and tests designed to bring out the potential star navigator in each of them. Navigation of speed tests and average speed regularities were attempted whilst been driven in HERO-ERA Arrive & Drive rally cars. The finalists all then competed in a map plotting exercise after they had been through general navigation and media training which included a TV style interview.

Winner Jocelyn Jones commented; " I don't think it has sunk in yet. It's quite unbelievable, really, I couldn't even get a word out. This means the start of my rally career, it will mean many big things, some pretty cool things and I will carry on learning as much as I can about being a really good navigator. Hopefully now I'll be able to convince my dad to drive me somewhere and I can tell him what to do a bit more, as well as meeting some new people and make a really good community out of it.

"I'll definitely still keep on with the driving I like to do, but I'm very excited to take more of a foray into the navigation, especially in a more competitive environment than I'm used to.

I really put myself out there, because I'm not really a very sociable person and this is very much out of my comfort zone, trying to actually push myself to do something, especially when it's as big as this, and there's so much going on. Getting back into my navigational head was a good thing to do as it was a close run thing.

"The other five were really incredible and really great people, and I can't wait to see what they do as well, because they're all very much going to be able to go off into that world and do so much more as well, so hopefully we will see each other again.”

HERO-ERA Head of Competition, James Phillips commented; "It was close but we have a really good winner, it was unanimous from the judges. I think Jocelyn Jones won because she was very calm, I think she has a level head, all the qualities you need for a navigator which just came across in all the different tasks, and came across well.

"We also have a good runner up in Max Denny, he has great potential as well. I certainly think we can try and help him and get him into some events  - we will help him as much as we can. We will help Jocelyn through the process, including the Motorsport UK Academy, and it was great that Cameron Biggs from MSUK came over and gave a talk to everyone about the Academy.”

Judge and former HERO-ERA Competition Director Guy Woodcock said; "It's such a great thing that we do in memory of Bob, for those who knew him, he was all about getting the youngsters involved in this sport. He was passionate about it and if he had been here today, I'm sure he would have gone with our choice of Jocelyn, she's got that love of the sport, and she's certainly got the enthusiasm which came through when she met with all of the people on the judging panel. From a personal point of view this is something that is a great legacy for Bob Rutherford and the family, especially for the boys Will and Ed. Long may it continue.”

Max Denny (18, Hereford City) said after he was announced in second place; "This is great. I mean, just the day in itself has been amazing. I've learned so much, and I definitely want to get out there, as I said, they're going to look to support me anyway, to try and get me to the events, which would be great. It has been a great learning curve, I've learned so many new things today, so I cannot wait to get out there.”