… Armstrong Galloway Hills Rally, Sat 14 Sept. 2019 …
Class Roundup
Class 7 – RWD Up To 2050cc 16v
“I had fun in the 2WDs today,” said class winner Mark McCulloch, “I was slow this morning but Black Loch was unreal, and I just went for it.” With Michael Hendry in the Mk2,they finished 12 seconds clear of Shane McGirr and Liam McIntyre in the Toyota Starlet. Shane actually had the measure of Mark and was leading but: “We got a puncture in SS3, and then another one in SS4,” said Shane. Bob Adamson and new navigator Jamie McTavish were 3rd in their Mk2 with Bob saying: “I’m really pleased – I’ve finished all the rounds I’ve started this year.” 4th in class were William Pollock and Helen Brown in the Mk1 having managed to get the bits to repair his gearbox after a breakage at Kames the other week: “It was close he said, they only turned up earlier this week.” David McLeod and Eamon Boyle made an impact (of the embarrassing kind) with the Sunbeam, not just finishing 5th but: “We spun in front of the crowds in SS2,” said David, “then it stalled, and wouldn’t start!” Christopher Rankin and Alex Knight were 6th in the BMW Compact saying: “Brilliant. We had a whale of a time. We got pretty close to one ditch in the final stage where a lot of cars had been before we got there, but we got away with it.” Final finishers were Rhuaridh Campbell and Michael Moates in another Sunbeam who did a ‘David McLeod’ when they spun, stalled and wouldn’t start in front of the crowds. It must be a Sunbeam thing, eh? Duncan MacDonald cowped the Mk2 in SS3 and Alistair Brearley suffered a rare mechanical failure and his Mk2 got stuck at the end of SS4.
Class 8 – 2WD Over 2050cc
4th 2WD o/a Iain Wilson and Chris Williams scored the Class 8 win in their Escort Mk2 ahead of the BMW E30 of Iain Haining and Mark Roberts. Iain reckoned Black Loch “was the stage of the day, brilliant” while Iain Haining reckoned it was good fun adding: “Apart from one stage on the Scottish Rally last year that’s my first time in the forest for 5 years.” Gordon Murray on his final, final rally outing before retirement ended his adventure prematurely with a mechanical problem in SS2 in the Escort while Jamie McIntyre ‘parked’ his Escort where he shouldn’t in the final stage.
Class 9 – 4WD (Non Class 10 or 11)
Michael Binnie, Ian Baumgart and Simon Hay were the class leaders here with Max and Callum Redpath finishing 4th in class in the Subaru after “a good day”. Paul Collins and Robert Wood scored 5th in their Subaru (which hasn’t seen a tin of polish in years!) saying “Brilliant, every rally gets better.” Ross McFadzean and Shona Hale had a busy run into 6th in their Subaru with three punctures during the day and “one big moment” ahead of Mike Moates and Gary McDonald who had an odd fault in their Subaru: “The speedo cable broke at the gearbox,” said Mike, “and the engine lost power. It’s an electronic problem, nothing mechanical.” Jan Budge and Bruce Lindsay were 8th in their Subaru after a fraught day too: “On SS3, the electrics cut out and we had a puncture and a misfire in SS4 – but the Glen Urr Ice cream was good.” Aileen and John Forrest were 9th in their Lancer and Aileen was fair proud of herself: “We got ‘air’ over a crest in stage 5, it was a bit of a moment but I held it.” Final finishers were Hector MacInnes and Jenny O’Kane first time out with the Subaru this year. Not so lucky were Thomas Gray who put it off in the final stage while Matthew Calderwood cowped his Lancer in the first stage of the day at Dalbeattie.
Class 10 – Group A 4WD, S2000 & R4
Armstrong, Beattie and Morris led the Class 10 runners home with Morris clinching the KNC Groundworks Scottish Championship Challengers title. Alan Dickson and Martin Forrest were 4th ahead of John Rintoul and Ross Hynd and who were lucky to finish as both the alternator and the clutch in the Skoda Fabia were failing and it struggled to get up the hill into Threave Gardens. Kevin Crawford and Andrew Stevenson were a wee bit dis-chuffed to finish 16th overall: “15th has been our number all year,” said Kevin, “but we’re 16th today.” Joe Hegarty put his Lancer off the road in SS3, Peter Stewart had gearbox failure in the Polo and Robert Harkness disappeared in SS3, while both Paul McKenna and Bill Thomson retired for mechanical reasons.
Class 11 – WRC And R5
The final class went to Bogie, Petch and Young after John Wink retired the Hyundai with a broken strut mounting and Andrew Gallacher also had a strut problem with his Fiesta – both ‘problems’ caused by rocks in the long grass!
Galloway - [Main Report] Galloway - [Stage Times] Galloway Classes - [1-6]