08 Feb: Coast 2 Coast Rally Latest

… Three Months and counting …

With the end of Covid (hopefully) in sight, anticipation is growing in Stranraer and the south west corner of Scotland.

On Friday and Saturday the 6th and 7th of May, this normally peaceful corner of the country will become a centre of national sporting endeavour such as it has never seen before.

Although motor rallies often pass through the area they are usually restricted to the many forested regions and forest roads, but the proposed Coast2Coast Rally will be different. The competitive element will be staged on sections of closed public road.

Mull of Galloway farmer and amateur rally driver Jim Sharp has driven these roads countless times over the years and has often thought to himself that many of the local roads would be ideally suited to the sport. Having competed on closed road rallies in Northern Ireland and the Duns based Jim Clark Clark Rally further east in the Borders he has long hoped for just such an event on his ‘home territory’.

A long time member of Machars CC he raised the subject when the Scottish Government passed the Act of Parliament which eased the process of allowing such events to be held on closed public roads.

Jim’s local knowledge and contacts network provided the ideal platform for the club to seriously consider such an idea. Originally scheduled for its debut in 2020, the arrival of Covid on our shores scuppered the proposal although work continued to progress behind the scenes. And now with a bit of luck, the Coast 2 Coast Rally with additional support from local firms Donnan Construction and SVM Port Services will makes its debut in 3 months time.

The idea has already generated wide support from local folks and local businesses. For instance Neil Fisher of Tigh Na Mara Hotel in Sandhead has been so helpful to the organisers that a nearby rally stage will be named ‘The Tig’.

Commenting on the new event, Neil said: “The arrival of an event like this should be great for local business. It will bring new people to the south west corner of Scotland and introduce them to the South West Coastal 300, a 300 mile tour around the best that the area has to offer. According to a survey last year by the Scotland Staycation Index, Dumfries & Galloway was voted the second most popular destination after the Highlands and Islands.”

“Here at the Tigh Na Mara Hotel we managed to keep busy by diversifying. In addition to the hotel we now have two holiday cottages and introduced a new service called ‘Tig to Go’. There’s a local company in Dalbeattie called ‘Iron & Pine’ which converts shipping containers into holiday homes and retail units and we installed one in our hotel car park and converted it into a kitchen from which we sell takeaway meals. This has proved very popular, not just with the local folks, but especially with the holidaymakers at the nearby Sands of Luce Holiday Park.”

Based in Stranraer and supported by local businesses Donnan Construction and SVM Port Services, additional support for the rally has come from Dumfries & Galloway Council, Roads Department, local community councils, Stranraer Development Trust and Police Scotland.

So make a date for two days of motor sporting activity on 6th/7th May – the rally cars are coming.