News and Gossip from the Border Counties ….
Perhaps the real heroes on the Border Counties were the Marshals. This was no day to be standing out in the open, and yet there they stood, these icicles of humanity, ensuring the rally would run. Conditions at the third stage at Craik defeated them despite having battled for hours through snowdrifts on the public road to get there. Once on site, the only way they could reach the Stop and Finish controls in the forest was by getting towed in by the 4×4 breakdown crews, but with drifts higher than the trees at some points, there was no way they could get to the Start. I would have taken my bunnet off to them all – but it was faur too cauld.
And there were more problems. On the Sunday before the rally, Hawick Council told the organisers that they had double-booked the Haugh Car Park and therefore the rally couldn’t use it as there was a funfair on site! Fortunately, the organisers managed to gain access to some undeveloped ground on the Hamilton Road industrial estate. Fortunately the ground had already been prepared for building and the gravel surface was frozen solid. Even more fortunately, there was more space than at the Haugh, so it all worked out very well. Apart that is from the bitter wind which sliced across the terrain.
At the pre-rally Drivers’ Briefing on Friday night, Bill Sturrock’s stage condition discussion and route amendments took twice as long as usual with many mentions of the words – ice, snow, slippery, very slippery, treacherously slippery, and effen slippery!
Mind you, public roads all around were pretty bad. Andy Horne got as far as Dalwhinnie on Friday afternoon when the Polis turned him round and he had to head back north and travel via Aberdeen to get to Jedburgh, arriving in the wee sma’ hours. Similarly, it took Fraser Wilson 9 hours to get from Glenluce to Jeburgh on Friday. And it was lucky he left in the morning cos his brother couldn’t’ get out of Wigtownshire on Friday afternoon and missed the rally. After the rally wasn’t much better, just ask Eddie O’Donell Jnr. He was heading for the last ferry for Mull – and got a text message saying it was cancelled.
Ian Paterson failed to start despite the fact that he escaped from Dumfries before the big snow and he duly turned up with the awfy smart Gulf liveried Impreza, but then got a call from co-driver Jim Haugh. He was marooned at the side of the road. He had to abandon the car and walk several miles home – to an empty house. His wife was down at the village hall serving tea and buns to stranded truckers. As for Ian he phoned Doug Redpath but the big chap has a bad back these days, and phoned a couple of other potential co-drivers, but no luck. Bad enough you might think, but then he had to book into his hotel for another night cos he couldn’t get home.
It would appear that the ‘Gentleman Racer’ had the right idea at the weekend. John McClory only had one spin, and survived it, on his way to 7th overall: “I’ve got a button inside the car, marked ‘On’ or ‘Off’, and I left it off,” said John, “It used to be a 3 position button – Normal, Sport and SuperSport – but the boys at Mayfield Garage Services converted it to either full on or full off. I’ve only ever used the ‘On’ setting once, and that was the last stage on last year’s RSAC Rally at Dumfries. I was having a bad day and wasn’t in a good mood, so I switched it on. I switched it off after a couple of miles and haven’t used it since!”
Stephen Baillie finished 16th overall, but lucky to do so: “We pulled over in the second stage to let Dale Robertson passed, but the ditch sucked us in. We were lucky to get out. I thought we might have to dig ourselves out”. Prepared for such contingencies, Susan Shanks had packed a snow shovel with her co-driver’s kit. They’re a canny lot these women co-drivers.
Alasdair Graham didn’t finish as he slid off on the final stage, but had earlier commented on the slippery conditions at the end of SS1: “There was an EVO of down a ditch, and I was going so slowly past it, I had time to reach the chassis number.”
It was Matthew Kesson’s 22nd birthday on the Friday before the Border Counties and he was having his first run out on gravel in the recently acquired ex-John Boyd Fiesta R2. Apparently ‘JohnBoy’ has taken himself off to Australia for a year, so maybe that’s why faither Gordon was looking less grumpy than usual. He’s now looking after the Fiesta for Matthew.
Iain Wilson had a cautious run in his Nova: “No spins today. I didn’t have to select reverse gear at all, although it was bluidy close at times.” And the reason for his extreme caution: “We had no service crew. We had to run with what we carried in the car and the tyres that were on it – the service crew were stuck in Dumfries because of the snow.”
And here’s an interesting observation from one who should know. Having driven the Lancer last year and now driving the Focus WRC, David Bogie offered the sincere opinion: “A Group N car would have been better today. Just stick it up a gear and let the torque do the work.” Maybe the wee red Lancer will make a comeback yet, eh?
And finally …
Remember, it wisnae me who said this, and it wisnae Steve Bannister either, but a certain Old Davefield (I’ve disguised his name to protect him so you’ll never know who he is!) described how slowly Banner was driving. When referring to Louise calling out the Route Notes, he said: “She’s never spoken so slowly in her life.” Go get ‘im Louise.
Note: Not as many stories as I would have liked, but this was due to circumstances outwith and beyond my control – the ink in my pen froze and the lead in my pencil was so brittle it kept breaking. Not only that I had forgotten my Dam-art thermal onesie and I had to huddle around an ice lolly for warmth.
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