… Scottish Tarmack Rally Championship, Reserve round Cheviot Stages 22 Sep. 2019, Otterburn …
With the cancellation of the Solway Coast the Cheviot Stages Rally was included in this year’s Cobble Shop Scottish Rally Championship as it had been declared a ‘Reserve’ event at the start of the year. However, with it being so close to the 2019 Beatsons Mull Rally, only 7 registered competitors made the trip to Otterbun. This didn’t hamper enthusiasm as the day started cold, although the sun came out eventually and temperatures rose. The overall event winner was Alan Kirkaldy and Cameron Fair in the Fiesta R5 ahead of a string of R5/WRCs so many congratulations to Alan and Cammy for the win.
Class 5 Robert Marshall and Lewis McDougall were out in the Subaru using the event for ‘seat time’ ahead of Mull next month, still trying to come to terms with the Impreza driving style. It proved a valuable visit to the ranges as the team clinched top points in the class. Unfortunately Alan and Greg Stark in the Evo failed to finish due to transmission issues.
Class 4 The only car in this class was Ross Auld with Richard Stewart, but an alternator belt snapped on Stage 3 putting an end to their day.
Class 3 Mark Thompson and Joe Hutchinson in the 206 had an interesting day on the ranges with Mark commenting at service he was leading the class after the first 5 stages, only for them to have to stop in stage 6 with the car full of smoke; he had left the oil cap off! This cost them around 1 min 40 sec thereafter driving the rest of the rally trying to catch the class leader, but fell short by 8 seconds.
There were no class 1 or class 2 cars competing at this event.
Additional observations – Murray and Mark Grierson finished just outside the top ten in 13th place in their Subaru Impreza, Ricky Wheeler and Dave Jackson were 22nd in their Historic spec RS2000 and Paul MacKinnon might well have been up there in the top ten but for a problem with the Fiesta on the first loop of stages which cost him around 6 mins. Gina Walker had deserted her horse for the weekend to go rallying with Allana Wilson in the Citroen C2 and finished 44th o/a and 8th in class.
Top Ten
- 1, Alan Kirkaldy/Cameron Fair (Ford Fiesta R5) 50 mins 55 secs
- 2, Damian Cole/Andrew Roughead (Ford Fiesta WRC) +00:03
- 3, Jason Tauber Pritchard/Phil Clarke (Ford Focus WRC) +00:36
- 4, John Stone/Michael Gilbey (Ford Fiesta WRC) +01:23
- 5, Frank Bird/Jack Morton (Ford Focus WRC) +01:59
- 6, Gordon Morrison/Calum MacPherson (Ford Fiesta R5) +02:11
- 7, Richard Slinger/Stuart Walker (Mitsubishi Evo6 RS) +05:00
- 8, Lee Hastings/Michael Cruickshank (Subaru Impreza) +05:38
- 9, George Mackey/Tony Cope (Subaru N12 Impreza) +0:05:53
- 10, Chris Ford/Neil Colman (Ford Fiesta R5) +06:16