McRae Musings ….
There was a touch of old-style rallying on the McRae this year when the organisers had no choice but to use two separate service areas. In other words, crews couldn’t park up for the day as they had to set up first in Aberfeldy then de-camp and move to Blairgowrie where they had to set up for a second time before the finish in Aberfeldy. Looking ahead, this will be a constant problem for the organising team as they seek to find a big enough sealed-surface area following last year’s floods. And that’s the problem facing all rally organisers, it’s not simply enough to have decent forests, there needs to be a venue nearby big enough to host the arriving circus and cope with the overnighting demands while providing a venue for Rally HQ and suitable service area facilities.
Ronald Dunsmore was running Course Car duties on the Colin McRae Rally in his authentically rebuilt ex-Willie Crawford MkII. The car was originally built at Boreham in 1975 and won first time out in Willie’s hands on the Snowman Rally. After some painstaking research and long hours in the garage, Ronald wheeled the car out to get dirty in Perthshire, but not before he had taken it through to the east coast to let Willie see it. Apparently Willie was fair impressed with the car.
Ian Fraser was out with Stephen Baillie in the Subaru: “I did the Snowman with Stephen, that was the first time I had met him,” said Fraser. “I didn’t say anything during the first stage but I asked him at the finish if he wanted any comment, and he said he did, so I told him I thought he was carrying too much speed into the bends and that was pushing him wide into the soft stuff.” Stephen was nodding wisely at this point and answered: “That’s funny. That’s what Mark Higgins told me last week!”
Dohhhhh.
It was good to see Richard Stewart out spectating on the McRae after his bump, but Peter Stewart will have to sit it out a few more weeks. His consultant has warned him not to go back in a rally car yet – although he didn’t say anything about him not going back to work! No doubt that was faither’s idea!
It will be interesting to see how Louise Sutherland gets out of this one. Prior to the McRae she was talking to Kevin Rae (and David Bogie) about their chances driving the MkII. As a regular co-driver for the Malton Missile, Louise has a fair idea of MkII pace, and told Kevin that given the pace of the 4WD cars not to mention the Hebridean Hurricane, Keith Robathan and Malcolm Buchanan that a top ten would be good. Kevin replied that they were going for a podium position. To which the bold Louise replied: “If you get in the top three, I’ll eat my Stilo.” Which makes one wonder, is that with or without the intercom attached?
Quote of the month? When I asked Tom Hynd if he had seen Roy MacLennan on his travels. He said: “Yes, he’s off in SS2” and by way of explanation, he added: “There is a tree involved!”
And finally ….
There was more fun and frolics from the north east mob at the McRae. Spotted on the bootlid of Brian Ross’ EVO5 was a sticker with ‘Smokey and the Bandit’ printed on it. When asked what this was all about, he explained: “I’m seeded in front of Brian Watson, so every time he pulls up behind me he’ll see the sign!” And as you all know, as of the Speyside, Brian’s new nickname is ‘Sheriff Buford T Justice’, and he still doesn’t like it any better, so the sticker was all about winding ‘the Sheriff’ up even more. And I thought Brian Ross was one of the nicer rallyists.