Events coming up shown below followed by latest News & Gossip ….
I didn’t manage to get down to the Pendragon Stages at the weekend which was a pity cos there was a good turnout of our lot and some decent results, not least because this was the ninth round of the Scottish Tarmack Rally Championship (and also a round of the north of England championship).
Young Peter Taylor scored his second outright rally victory holding off six times winner of this event William Stobart to clinch the win by 17 seconds. Once again the Lindsays were in giant-killing form, the wee 1600 Peugeot storming round the tank ranges at Warcop to finish fifth overall.
Jim Sharp closed Ross Fernie’s lead in the Scottish Championship down to one point when he finished 7th overall while Ross was ninth. Ricky Wheeler’s return to the sport was rewarded with 13th place. With two rounds to go in this year’s Scottish Tarmack series, Ross Fernie now leads on 121 points from Jim Sharp on 120. Next up is Kieran O’Kane on 100 points from Ian Forgan on 99, Stuart Walker on 96 and Ian Miller on 89.
Next round is the Tunnocks Mull Rally followed by the finale at Crail in November.
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Colin McRae Forest Stages, 6 October
And as the Scottish Rally Championship regulars line up for battle on the Colin McRae Forest Stages final round, a look at the points after 7 of the 8 rounds shows that Mike Faulkner has a 21 point lead in the runner-up position over Euan Thorburn.
But looks can be deceiving. Since competitors can count only their best 6 scores from the 8 events, Euan Thorburn has a ‘1’ from the Snowman that he can drop if he scores well in Aberfeldy while Mike’s lowest score is a ‘26’. In other words we’re in for another nail-biter like last year when the Championship Regulations had to be dusted off to check the tie-break rules.
Although already confirmed as Scottish Champion, for a record fourth consecutive time, David Bogie will be there, but not in the Lancer. Lips remain tightly closed at present as to his choice of velocipede. Naturally that will be of interest, but it shouldn’t take anything away from the battle in prospect between Faulkner and Thorburn.
For the second time, this year’s event is also a counter in the Kololi Beach Club – MSA British Historic Rally Championship. With over 60 entries confirmed and another 20 or so in the pipeline, if anyone wants to place a last minute entry, I’m sure the Bears will snatch your dosh:
http://www.coltnesscarclub.com/mcraerally/Entry%20Form%202012.pdf
Entry List and Route details will be published here the week before the rally.
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Tunnocks Mull Rally, 12-14 October
It looks as though there will be another excellent entry for the Tunnocks Mull Rally again with over 120 crews entered. And further to an earlier news item about bridges being washed away in the great floods last month, two are fully repaired and the third is on schedule – so, no need to build Ken Block style ramps to clear the last one!
Now here’s an interesting statistic, and I don’t know if anything meaningful can be taken out of it, but of the first 100 entries received by the Tunnocks Mull organisers, 50 were from first-timers. So whilst it is very encouraging that this unique event continues to attract newcomers, it begs the question, where are the old-timers going?
Entry List and Route details will be published here the week before the rally.
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British Rally Championship
And here’s a bit of shock news, next year’s Scottish Rally at Dumfries will be a counter in the British Rally Championship as well as the Scottish national series. That means two Scottish events in the British Championship with the Jim Clark on the first weekend of June and the Scottish on the last Saturday of June.
In another change to the British Championship, Rally Sunseeker is likely to be the final round of the series as opposed to the traditional opening event.
2013 MSA British Rally Championship calendar:
Round 1: 6/7 April – Rally North Wales, Welshpool, (Gravel)
Round 2: 4/5 May – Pirelli Rally, Carlisle, Cumbria (Gravel)
Round 3: 31 May /1 June – Jim Clark Rally, Duns, Scottish Borders (Asphalt)
Round 4: 29 June – Scottish Rally, Dumfries (Gravel)
Round 5: 23/24 August – Rally NI, Northern Ireland (Asphalt)
Round 6: 28/29 Sept – Rally Yorkshire, Scarborough, North Yorkshire (Gravel)
Round 7: 19 October – Rallye Sunseeker*, Bournemouth/Poole (Gravel)
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Other Gossip
Ross McWilliams who has emigrated from Mull to Cockermouth where he works in the Paul Benn empire got a bit of a treat the other day. He was delivering parts to the M-Sport team in Greystoke Forest where Ott Tanak was doing some testing ahead of Rally Wales GB. Anyway, some ballast was needed in the Fiesta WRC car and Ross got the call. “It was brilliant. I got 5 runs with Ott, but I couldn’t get the belts tight enough,” said Ross, “so I was bouncing around a bit and not able to concentrate as hard as I would have liked. It was impressive. Just when I was thinking Ott should be braking for a corner, he pulled another gear! Then it was down two gears, pitch it into the bend and then half way round, up a gear and away. Amazing.”
It was good to see John Pye back behind the wheel on the Lindisfarne the other weekend. It was his first event since he last drove his Ford Sierra Saphhire 21 years ago. Apparently he got brand new blue suede bootees for his Christmas and they hadn’t been used so the old ‘Bob the Log’ Impreza had the dust blown off it for the Lindisfarne. “I didn’t know too much about it,” said John, “when I last saw the car it was plain white but when I got to the rally yesterday it was decked out in my old blue and white colours.” With Tristan servicing, he finished 14th overall. It was also co-driver John Coxon’s first run out in 27 years – and neither had ever used Pace Notes! “I really enjoyed myself,” said John, “but half way round the first long one this morning I was needing a rest stop and a cup of tea! These young lads must be so fit.”
Lying second over in the Scottish Tarmack Championship, Jim Sharp is considering a change for next season: “”I’m thinking of changing the Impreza for a Lancer, and having a proper go at the full REIS National Tarmac Championship,” he said.
Bumped into a spectating Ian Watson at the Lindisfarne. He still has the Escort but is waiting for a ‘Historic’ spec BDA coming for it. Meanwhile work is progressing nicely on the ex-Nigel Feeney Impreza WRC which he had hoped to debut here but now looks as though it won’t be ready till the Keith Knox Cheviot on the 4th of November.
And finally ….
It’s not just the Scots who get up to all sorts of nonsense between and during rallies (see past ‘And finallys’) the Northumbrians can be just as scatterbrained. Take Phil Morton for instance. At the previous event at Otterburn, Phil had gone off to fill the jerry cans with fuel ahead of the Tyneside Stages – and filled them up with diesel. Fortunately, this was spotted just prior to topping up the Fiat X1/9 rally car at the event. Naturally, Phil’s ‘friends’ thought this extremely funny and the poor sod was ribbed mercilessly all weekend. Anyway, you’d think he’d learn, eh?
Fast forward to the Lindisfarne the other weekend and Phil went off to fill the jerry cans, taking careful note of the pump signs at the filling station. Having filled up the car again, he drove it to Scrutineering, which it passed – then it refused to start. Undaunted, he hitched it up to the service van and they towed it up and down the street. Not a flicker. Not even an attempt at a flicker. Then it dawned on him. Oh sure, he had filled up with Shell V-Power, but he had filled up with V-Power Diesel not, V-Power Unleaded! Dohhhh!
After draining and cleaning out the tank and engine, they filled it up with petrol and tried again, towing it up and down the street. Still nowt. Then he tried it with the ignition switched on! Success. And the worst of it is, if you think his ‘mates’ gave him a hard time last time, it was nothing compared to this occasion. And you know what, I really felt sorry for him – especially when he noticed the ‘TDi’ sticker on the Fiat’s bootlid!
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