Rally Hebrides, Saturday 18th August
Lewis Car Club are on course to stage their best ever Rally Hebrides 2012 this coming Saturday with an excellent entry of cars and crews for this ‘demonstration, non-timed’ charity event.
Heading the entry list is David Bogie, with Lori on the Notes and Time Cards for the first time ever in the hot seat. David naturally has entered into the spirit of this non-competitive fund raising event – by practicing at Kames! Hamish Kinloch has loaned him his Honda engined Escort MkII for the event and David reckons it’s quite a handful.
“I must have spun it about 17 times during the shakedown,” said David, “it’s a high revving engine and there is nothing below 7000 rpm, then it all arrives at once up to 9000 rpm, so it’s really difficult to keep the power on when sliding it.”
John Morrison is taking over his Lancer and will act as translator for the visitors (John has the native Gaelic!) and Alan Gardiner is taking up the mighty MkI. Brian ‘The Sheriff’ Watson has dusted the cobwebs off his Audi for the occasion while top local hope, Calum Buchanan will have his own Escort out to do battle with Bogie. Quintin ‘Sideyways’ Milne is taking his Lancer across the sea too, and Alan “The party starts here” MacKay will have the Ford Anglia WRC (Well Run Car!). And lurking down at the tail of the field is Sandy Arbuthnott. He has entered the Metro 6R4 – if he gets the Jag engine to run right!
A dedicated Rally Shop opposite the Town Hall entrance will be selling all-day spectator wristbands and merchandise. This year, the cost to access each stage and Friday night Scrutineering will be £5a time or buy a £12 wristband for access to the whole event. Under 16’s will be admitted free (but request that they should be accompanied by an adult).
All proceeds from the Rally go to Macmillan Cancer Support.
Spectator Info:
10.00 Hrs, Rally Start and first two stages at Lewis Castle
12.30 Hrs, Stages 4 and 5 at Melbost Farm
15.30 Hrs, Stages 6 and 7 at Lewis Karting Centre
18.00 Hrs, Rally Finish at CnES in Sandwick Road, Stornoway.
List of Runners:
0 Stan Bradley (Forres) Ford Escort Cosworth
1 David Bogie (Dumfries) Ford Escort MkII
2, John Morrison (Conon Bridge) Mitsubishi Lancer Evo9
3, Alan Gardiner (Biggar) Ford Escort MkI
4, Brian Watson (Stonehaven) Audi Quattro
5, Calum G Buchanan (Uig) Ford Escort MkII
6, Alan MacKay (Brora) Ford Anglia WRC
7, Donald Riddell (Stornoway) Mitsubishi Lancer Evo9
8, Peter Garrow (Elgin) Ford Escort MkII
9, Ian Cattanach (Inverness) Talbot Sunbeam
10, Iain Mutch (Uig) Vauxhall Astra GTE
11, Chris McCallum (Dumfries) Ford Escort MkII
12, Quintin Milne (Banchory) Mitsubishi Lancer Evo9
14, Lorn Macfadyen (Glasgow) Ford Escort MkII
15, Charlie Donaldson (Inverness) Ford Cortina MkI
16, Calum Macleod (Stonehaven) Subaru Impreza
17, Tommy Mackay (Invergordon) Ford Escort MkII
18, Chris Munro (Skye) Vauxhall Corsa
19, Sandy Morrison (Dunvegan) Ford Sierra 4×4
20, Alistair Adams (Inverness) Ford Escort MkII
21, Euan MacKay (Brora) Ford Anglia JWRC
22, George Bryson (Mauchline) Ford Escort TC
23, Duncan Macdonald (Skye) Ford Escort MkII
24, Niall Inglis (Skye) Vauxhall Nova RWD
25, David Cameron (Portree) Ford Escort MkII
26, John Macleod (Skeabost) Toyota Corolla
27, Kevin Hay (Skye) Peugeot 205
28, Sandy Arbuthnott (Elgin) MG Metro 6R4
The event is organised by Lewis Car Club and details can be found on the Rally Hebrides Facebook page and on their website at: http://wwwlewiscarclub.com/ These sites will be regularly updated with rally news before and after the event.
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Scots Abroad
Reigning English Rally Champion Allan McDowall (from Ayrshire!) is currently lying fourth in this year’s Swisher English Rally Championship in his Opel Kadett, but he hasn’t had much luck of late.
On the recent Rainsworth Dukeries Rally in the Sherwood forests of Nottinghamshire, he and Gavin Heseltine, smacked a tree with the car. They drove the remaining four miles of the test with puncture and reached the rally finish but championship leader Julian Wilkes extended his lead in this year’s series.
Provisional standings after Round 4:
1 Julian Wilkes – 100 points
2 Mick Smith – 85
3 Neil Matthews – 74
4 Allan McDowall – 73
5 Nigel Jenkins – 72
The next round of the Championship is the Woodpecker Stages on the 1st of September – gaun yersels boys.
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Scots at Home
Ten stages in a one day National B forest format was unusual, but Speyside Rally organisers 63 Car Club had little choice. “It was the only way we could get the full stage mileage,” said CofC Neil Shanks, “there is so much work going in the local forests that we were restricted. In fact, a few weeks ago, the rally was in doubt.” As it turned out, the format was very well received, the shortest forest test was 2.8 miles and the longest 8.4, and it really kept interest bubbling along nicely. It also made the rally feel longer than it was.
Colin Pagan and the Jim Clark Rally have severed their relationship, and apparently the parting was not quite amicable. A great pity, Colin has done a lot for the club and the event over the years, but these things happen, especially in amateur organisations and relationships. The organising team have appointed former Scottish Rally Championship chairman Dan Wright to chair the revised committee for next year’s event.
If ever there was a case for opting out of expensive car fuels and going for standard pump fuel, then Fraser Wilson made it quite eloquently when chatting at the Speyside. Brian Ross has been running pump fuel in his EVO5 for some time and Stephen Bailie has just switched to standard fuel in his Impreza, while Fraser is running pump fuel in his EVO6 and said: “The difference in price between the two fuels was just getting too much,” said Fraser, “In fact the money I save on each event will buy a set of tyres. So we start every rally now on new tyres.” So what would you rather have – more power or more grip? It makes sense to me.
And here’s a new spectator sport, Ken Wood’s attempts at mole catching. As you know Ken runs the very busy Insch International (microlights from all over the UK and Eire) grass strip airfield just outside the ancient walled city of Insch in Aberdeenshire, but he’s having trouble with moles. Apparently he’s tried everything to rid himself of the perishing little tunnellers, but to no avail. Anyway, the latest ploy is to borrow some heat-seeking equipment similar to that used by rescue services when looking for bodies buried under rubble or underground. So if you see a strange light at night walking backwards and forwards across the landing-strip you’ll know he’s not simply communing with nature or starting up a coven. Anyway I gave him another idea kindly told to me by one Jasper Carrott who had a similar problem. He fitted a powerful torch to his twelve ore shotgun and sat outside in his garden all night waiting for the little blighters to show themselves – then ‘ka-bloom’! In the morning his once pristine lawn looked like the Somme in 1918.
I heard at the weekend that driver and co-driver Carin Logan has joined the Polis. On hearing the ‘good’ news, her Dad, the proprietor of the highly renowned and innovative engineering and rally car preparation business, Grumpy Motorsport, asked: “Does that mean I’ll need to tax the pickup?” Magnanimous as ever, eh?
Chris Collie was beaming from ear to ear at the finish of the Speyside as he crossed the line with the EVO6 which had a gold lame pair of knickers dangling from the bootlid (Lisa denies eveyrthing!) but the reason for the smiles had nothing to do with that. “Brian Watson and I had a bet that if finished three events in a row, he would give me his EVO9 for the next event, and that’ll be the Merrick.” When approached, Chris’ version of events was rather different to Brian’s recollections: “I know there was drink involved,” said Brian, “but I’m not so sure about the car.” Well, we’ll all know soon, eh?
I hope you’ll forgive the excessive mentions of the words Groundwater, Watson and Collie in this latest News round-up, but I can’t help it. There’s a whole troop of scallywags who keep their cars at the same place in the north east so things get a bit busy and a bit personal at times. Anyway, Chris Collie asked Barry Groundwater if he would sit beside him on a Sponsor’s stage day just to get some feedback on his car. It had been rebuilt prior to the Speyside with a new gearbox, brakes and suspension plus a whole list of other bits. By all accounts it was Barry who learned the most during this test run: “I was impressed, Chris is the only guy I have ever seen flat-shifting a standard 5 speed synchro ’box. No wonder he needed the gearbox rebuilt, and a new clutch, and a new flywheel, and a new …. “ at which point Chris shut him up.
And finally ….
I always thought Wayne Sisson was a nice guy, but he’s obviously been spending too much time in bad company. Quintin Milne and Brian Watson (funny how Brian’s name keeps cropping up) were going to Arnside Motorsport to collect a car and assorted bits, so Wayne told them he would book them into a hotel for the night and then get all the stuff in the morning. Wayne gave them the address and post code for the hotel – and then waited for the inevitable phone call! Our two heroes duly turned up at the hotel and took ages getting the van and trailer turned around and parked up in the car park. Then they got their bags out of the van and headed for the front door – passing boarded up windows on the way. The front door was locked so the boys started knocking on the door to gain entry until a passer-by spotted them and informed them there would be no room at the inn tonight – it closed down 7 years ago. Hence the boarded up windows. The boys twigged at last. Another phone call to a highly amused Wayne resulted in a different address and a proper hotel.
And finally, finally ….
Here comes the Sheriff. With friends like Barry Groundwater, who needs enemies? Certainly not Brian Watson that’s for sure. He turned up at the workshop the other evening with a new pair of sunglasses that looked remarkably like the aviator shades as worn by one Sheriff Buford T. Justice in ‘Smokey and the Bandit’. Naturally this caring assortment of pals, friends, acquaintances and hingers-oan spotted the likeness and started calling Brian, the Sheriff. Brian didn’t take too kindly to this at first, so the ribaldry got worse as true friends do. Anyway on the day of the rally he turned up to find his car had a new sticker on the side of each front wing with the words – ‘Sheriff Buford T Justice’. Naturally, Brian took it off, but next time he looked there was another pair of decals re-affixed. The good ol’ boys had got a stock of the stickers made up and each time Brian took them off, they magically re-appeared. Eventually he just gave up and ran the car all day, getting more and more fed up with folk asking why he had ‘The Sheriff’ stickers on his car. Even Jaggy was not immune and when he enquired in all innocence as to the significance of this unexpected additional decoration, the reply came back very short, very terse – and very celtic!
So if you see such legends imprinted on Brian’s car at the Merrick – don’t ask, if you value your health and wellbeing.
Note: I should add that ALL the above is perfectly true and no names have been changed to protect the innocent. JB
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