Lindisfarne Rally, Sept 16 ….
This weekend’s Lindisfarne Rally (just over the border in Englandshire) on Sunday the 16th will be held at Otterburn. This will be round 8 of the 11 event Scottish Tarmack Championship, with Ross Fernie currently leading on 101 points from Chris McCallum 84, Kieran O’Kane 83, Stuart Walker 82, Bruce Hay 80 and Jim Sharp on 78. So if you think it’s close now, wait till they start having to drop scores!
The rally starts from the airstrip at 09.30 am with 11 stages during the day and should be all over by 4.30 pm. Access is just south of the Redesdale Arms on the A68 – look for the arrow.
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Colin McRae Forest Stages Rally, Oct 6
The Regulations and Entry Form are now available on-line for the final round of the MSA National Scottish Rally Championship, the Colin McRae Forest Stages Rally on Saturday the 6th of October. http://www.coltnesscarclub.com/mcraerally/NatB_REGS2012.pdf
The event is also a round of the Kololi Beach Club MSA British Historic Rally Championship and as such will be attracting a healthy influx of furriners in historic rally weaponry. It’s not just the sight of these grand machines that we all love, it’s the sound.
http://www.coltnesscarclub.com/mcraerally/NatA_REGS2012_adverts.pdf
Once again, the Bears (Coiltness Car Club) have arranged a compact route around an Aberfeldy Start and Finish and have managed to find two hard-standing areas for servicing, a difficult task in this sparsely populated terrain.
Now it might well be a touch damp on the day, but it won’t (can’t?) be as bad as last year, or look at it another way – at least there won’t be any midges. It’s the final forest event of the season (apart from the Galloping Hills) so don’t miss it.
As ever, the organisers need Marshals, so if you’re doing nowt else on Saturday the 6th, then why not come along and marshal. Apparently the Bears’ goodie bags for Marshals are amongst the best in the business. Not only that, you can make new friends and sample the fresh air – there’s lots of it in Perthshire. So drop an email to: marshals@coltnesscarclub.com
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Rally Wales GB
Bruce McCombie and Michael Coutts will be in Wales this weekend for the National event within Wales Rally GB, but the nearest we’ve got to Scots in the International event are Matthew Wilson and Scott Martin (from Coooombria) making a return to the world series.
As for Alister McRae, although the Proton team will be in Wales this weekend, he will be contesting the Hokkaido Rally in Japan this same weekend with the other half of the Proton works team. This latest round of the FIA Asia-Pacific Championship clashes with the FIA world series Rally Wales GB, so no home run for him.
Tickets for Wales Rally GB 2012 are on sale at www.walesrallygb.com, with prices starting from £20 per adult for the forest stages. A limited edition celebratory 80th anniversary Gold Rally Pass is also available on a ‘first come, first served’ basis for £130, providing access to all four days (that includes the pre-event stuff) of Wales Rally GB 2012. (Terms and conditions apply to all ticket prices.)
List of Stages:
Friday 12th September
SS1, Dyfnant 1, 08.10 Hrs
SS2, Hafren Sweet Lamb 1, 09.35 Hrs
SS3, Myherin 1, 10.16 Hrs
SS4, Dyfnant 2, 13.10 Hrs
SS5, Hafren Sweet Lamb 2, 14.35 Hrs
SS6, Myherin 2, 15.16 Hrs
Saturday 15th September
SS7, Crychan 1, 08.59 Hrs
SS8, Epynt 1, 09.37 Hrs
SS9, Halfway 1, 10.03 Hrs
SS10, Crychan 2, 15.14 Hrs
SS11, Epynt 2, 15.52 Hrs
SS12, Halfway 2, 16.18 Hrs
SS13, Celtic Manor, 18.27 Hrs
And that’s yer lot, 13 stages, but the Friday run totals 146 miles of stages while Saturday’s run totals 95 miles.
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Tunnock’s Mull Rally
And speaking of international rallies, the Tunnock’s Mull Rally on 12th to 14th October has got 113 entries so far – and rising. So if you fancy a real tarmac test this is the one. You’ll notice that there are no world rally stars taking part, no Sebastien, no Jari-Matti and no Petter. That’s because they’re too feart of the competition. https://www.rallies.info/webentry/2012/mull/
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News & Gossip
The British Junior Rally Champion was taking part in the Ian Broll Merrick Stages Rally last week, but in case you missed Garry Pearson’s name in the Entry List, he wasn’t actually competing, he was marshalling. Garry had offered to help and was initially down to run Course Car, but due to a change of plan was asked to help out and man a Passage Control. And he was happy to oblige. Now there’s an example to us all.
Despite the fact that he’s been sitting beside Colin Gemmell of late (note, I said ‘sitting beside’, I didn’t use the terms ‘navigating’ or ‘co-driving’), Nigel Feeney hasn’t been too idle. He’s actually bought another Impreza ‘shell which is currently having a roll-cage fitted prior to the installation of all the greasy bits. It’ll probably be next year before he’s out despite promises of an appearance this year.
The fake Sheikh of Fenwick flew in from Dubai for the Merrick and aside from Stewarding duties was spotted interfering with Jim McDowall on the Commentary and at the Prizegiving. So with both Jim and Big Roy Campbell sharing their words of wisdom and enlightenment on the ‘speaklouderphone’, it was pure Wigtownese in stereo. Apart from the locals no-one could understand a word.
Proving that rallying is safe and school-teaching is a dangerous occupation, Susan Shanks turned up for CLO duty at the Merrick with her right arm in stookie. She broke her wrist while woman-handling a heavy box of text books off a high shelf at school.
Wigtownshire awoke to a power cut on the morning of the Merrick Rally, and even ‘yours truly’ was not immune, I had breakfast by candlelight in the wee hotel in Kirkcowan. Thankfully the kitchen was powered by gas so the fry-up was warm and welcome and the tea wis oat. Elsewhere, competitors and organisers were caught mid-shower while Mark McCulloch was lucky to start the rally. He intended to fill up the car and jerry cans at the local garage before the rally start but when he got there, they had no power either.
Oh, and by the way, Stevie Brown has his Subaru Impreza up for sale. So if anyone is interested give him a bell for the full spec on – 07786863405. If he gets it sold quickly, then the plan is to get a Fiesta ST in time for Mull.
And here’s an unusual titbit of news. Did you know that Dave Newsham who has twice won a round of the British Touring Car Championship this year has a much more illustrious competition history? Neil and Fiona Moir of Highland CC informed me at the Merrick that the ES Racing Vauxhall Vectra driver has previously run Closing Car duties on the Snowman Rally on four occasions in the past. Although he’s Welsh, he now lives and works in Inverness. No wonder he’s so quick when it’s slippery.
And finally ….
Now, I apologise in advance for once again returning to the north east for the latest chapter in the series of shenanigans that emanates from the Bermuda triangle of Scottish rallying. It’s not that I am conducting a particular investigation into this hotbed of rallying intrigue, this ongoing soap opera is actually true – every word of it (see recent past News columns).
Anyway, it would appear that Quintin Milne has an awfy smart and genuine Escort MkI, or at least he had, note use of past tense here. Apparently the usual culprits had gathered for a bit of a pairty at the farm where they tend to work on the rally cars, and according to legend, strong drink was partaken. At some point in the evening, someone thought it would be a good idea to do ‘doughuts’ in Quintin’s MkI, so Quintin showed them how it was done. Step forward the bold Barry G (usually the instigator of such cairry-oans) who claimed that he could do figure of eights better than Quintin. He was going fine until the very last spin of the car when the sliding tail end clouted the corner of a shed. Bear in mind this was taking place on a farm, so it wasn’t a garden shed – it was a proper steel structured hay shed. The shed was fine, but the impact stove in the rear n/s quarter of the MkI.
Thankfully, it was only panel damage and the mechanical bits were fine, but Quintin was out for revenge. He had some stickers made up for Barry’s car at the Merrick, but they turned out wrong. The stickers had the name ‘Ken Block’ on them, but what Quintin had actually asked for was ‘Not Ken Block’ to be printed on them! I can hardly wait for the McRae Stages now and the next chapter, forget ‘Dallas’ and ‘Strictly’, this is the best show in town these days!
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