… News & Gossip …
Circuit of Donegal …
The Scots made a pretty good showing on this weekend’s Circuit of Donegal Rally with David Bogie and Michael Hendry finishing 4th overall and first in class on the National Rally first time out in their new Escort Mk2. They were setting top ten times from the off, but by the finish of the 20 stage rally they had a couple of fastest stage times under their belts.
Ross Marshall and Dave Robson were 22nd o/a in their Mk2 ahead of Jim McDowall and Charlotte McDowall in the Subaru 30th o/a and 2nd in class 15. Lewis Gallagher and Angus Williams were 31st o/a and 4th in class 20 ahead of Stewart Morrison and Jason MacPhail 37th o/a and 13th in class 13 in their Escort Mk2.
Ross Hunter and Josh Davidson acquitted themselves well in a class heavily populated with Mk2s finishing 45th overall and 17th in class 13 in their Peugeot 205. ‘Ex-pat’ Tony Jardine and Gordon Noble were 50th o/a and 6th in class 20 in their Evo 9 while Robert Adamson and Richard Wardle were the final finishers scoring 6th o/a in the Historic Rally in their Mk2 and first in class.
As for Alan Gardiner and Alan Todd (Escort Mk1), Lee Hastings and Alistair Wyllie (Subaru) and Kieran O’Kane and John Frew (Ascona) I know not what happened as they don’t appear on the finishers lists.
… The Blethers …
It’s a while since we’ve seen the Smiths out and about on a rally, not since Jamie’s bump on the Jim Clark Rally a while back but eyebrows were raised when Jamie entered a 3 litre Fiesta for the Summer Stages – and then turned up in a Lancer! Renowned for building fierce and wonderful creations in the past faither Roy told me that yes they were indeed building a 3 litre new shape Fiesta: “But we just ran out of time to get it ready for this, hence the Lancers, although we should be ready for the Mach 1 Stages.” Looking very like an S2000 car, the new device will run a 3 litre V6 Nissan engine with 6 speed seq MakTrak gearbox mated up to a four wheel drive transmission. I can’t wait to see it – and hear it.
Alistair Inglis withdrew his Summer Stages entry on the Thursday before the rally and blamed ‘the boy’ Greg. “I couldn’t get into the Exige,” he explained, “I pulled a muscle or something in my neck on Tuesday night and can’t turn it or bend it, so I simply couldn’t get into the car’s cockpit.” So what was he up to on Tuesday night, unfortunately nothing salacious or embarrassing: “We were putting a new engine into Greg’s Saxo and I just twisted or strained the wrong way and got stuck with a stiff neck. It’s really quite painful so there was no way I could get into the Lotus.” Anyway, there was some good news, Greg said that’s the best the Saxo has ever run and is looking forward to Machrihanish.
I don’t know if you’ve seen James Gibb’s Subaru bootlid but he has a mural on it commemorating the late Colin McRae. It caused quite a stir at Knockhill the other week and caused a rather different stir at Crail. On the second stage, Ian Paterson came out of the split right behind James and although he could catch him under braking the two Subarus were pretty evenly matched in the power stakes and Ian couldn’t get out and get past, and ended up getting really close under braking each time, but Ian, who knew Colin well, was muttering to himself: “Don’t hit Colin! I can’t hit Colin, all I could see out of the windscreen was Colin looking back at me, and me thinking, don’t hit Colin.” Weird, funny and sad all at the same time, eh?
It’s no surprise that Pete Garrow is a friend of Sandy Arbuthnott, they are both daft about big engines. Inside Pete’s Audi TT is a 3 litre Jaguar V6 lump which is why it goes and sounds so well, at least it did. Pete heard the big ends rattle on the fourth stage and called it a day. If you get the chance, have a look under the bonnet. It’s a self-build and fair credit to the man for the quality of the job. As for Sandy, he was spannering for Pete and revealed that he has sold his Jaguar V6 engined Metro 6R4 to a chap down south who wants to use it for track days. Apparently work is underway in the Arbuthnott cave on a Mk2. As for engine, Sandy wouldn’t say. I dread to think.
Tommy Morris was funny, without meaning to be, when he described an incident on the fourth stage at Crail: “Someone took out the chicane ahead of me, so I went through it flat in fourth,” said Tom, “completely forgetting about the next corner and of course arrived at it seriously too quick.” Fortunately he managed to shed sufficient speed using the paddle downshift and brakes to get round: “If that had been the old H pattern gearbox I would never have made it, I would have got flustered,” said Tom, “the paddles are so quick that the engine braking helped as well. Phew!”
Bruce Edwards had a new co-driver at the weekend, one Graham ‘Grum’ Wilcock from Malton in the independent state of Yorkshire. Trouble was, Grum is some 8 inches taller than Jim Smith and twice as wide and deep (if you see what I mean) so was an unlikely choice for co-driving duty in the Darrian. It turned out the Mull Rally was to blame. Both are fans of the event and as Bruce explained: “It was the result of a drunken conversation on ‘Pig Day’ at the Bellachroy Hotel.” Bruce of course was referring to the annual pig roast event after the rally in Dervaig, “where a’body gets drunk” and the plot or bet (both are unsure) was hatched then. The stupidity of the idea became apparent at scrutineering ahead of the Summer Stages when Grum tried to get into the car. It was like watching someone trying to squeeze a size 14 foot into a size ten Lidl plastic sandal. “once I was in, I couldn’t move,” said Grum, “I don’t think we’ll be trying it again.” Methinks the best way to avoid that is to give Pig Day a bodyswerve this year otherwise goodness knows what will happen.
It was a like a scene from the Bible, Shona Hale was feeding the masses, but it was the aroma that attracted me. I was convinced someone had been out for a takeaway as there were groups of people wandering around one corner of the service area with plastic bowls full of chicken fried rice. Not only did it smell authentic it looked good too. At an event where folks are usually singe-ing sausages or burning burgers and sticking them on stale rolls, Shona was feeding the troops (and other waifs and strays) with her home cooking. Intrigued, I ventured into the kitchen, the open back door of a Shogun, where Shona had set up a two ring gas stove on which was a dry sump tank full of rice and a hub cap frying chicken. At least that’s what it looked like. This was in addition to her co-driving duties too and driver Nigel Feeney was overheard: “This is good, I’m going back for more.” It all just reinforced the fact that women are so much better at multi-tasking than mere men, eh?
And finally …
Marital harmony in the McRae household was disrupted in the early hours of Saturday morning, but not early enough! Brenda, the matriarch, had to bring radios through to Crail for the Marshals to use so wanted to be up and away early while Ian, the Patriarch, was co-driving for one of the Juniors, Cameron Russell, and Kenneth ‘the boy’ was competing in his Peugeot 205. They all agreed that a 4 o’clock alarm call would do the trick for them to get up and get out and on their way. Untrustful of the male side of the family Brenda set the clock for 4. Ian woke first, but the alarm hadn’t gone off and it was nearly six o’clock! Bedlam then ensued and with images of Corporal Jones shouting “Don’t panic, don’t panic,” Ian woke the rest of the household and off they went. On the way through, Ian asked Brenda about the alarm. You’re way ahead of me, eh? Yup, you’re right, she had set it for 4 p.m., not a.m.!
**