… Dumfries & Galloway RSAC Scottish Rally, Sat 23 July 2022 …
Rd5 (of 8) 2022 KNC Groundworks Scottish Rally Championship
Class Roundup
M7 (See main report too)
Outright winners Michael Binnie and Claire Mole were also class winners ahead of Angus Lawrie/Paul Gribben, Willie Paterson/Tom Hynd and Mark McCulloch/Michael Hendry. Mark had been lucky to make the rally start though as the steering rack on the Proton failed at the pre-event test. A new one was fitted while the old one was stripped, welded and rebuilt. Good job too, as the new rack developed a hydraulic leak and they had to re-fit the old, but now repaired, one back in the car/They finished at 1.00asm on the Fri/Sat night. Finishing 6th in class were Aileen and John Forrest in the Evo9 ahead of the Subaru of Ronnie Horne and Steven Kerschat. Aileen and John had their pre-rally troubles too though when the fuel pump failed at the Friday test so they put the car on the trailer and disappeared over the border to Wayne Sissons’ place to have a new fuse box fitted. At least it didn’t happen on the rally. Kevin Crawford and Andrew Stevenson were forced to retire their Lancer with a gearbox trouble.
Pro2
Once again, the pace of Peter Stewart and Harry Marchbank in the Peugeot 208 Rally4 stunned onlookers as they sped to, not only a comfortable class win, but a superb 11th place overall with faither Richard Stewart and Carin Tait-Logan 2nd in the sister car to Peter’s, but they had a puzzling stop on one stage: “The car just suddenly cut out and stopped so we pulled over and though that was it, then it started up again!” That’s French cars for you, eh?
Pro4 (See main report too)
Getting quicker every time out, relative rally newcomer Hugh Brunton with Drew Sturrock scored his best gravel result to date with 2nd overall but almost got carried away on the final stage: “I just lost concentration and smacked the o/s rear against the undergrowth – but no damage.” Very lucky, how would they ever manage to fix that leery paint job? David Henderson and Chris Lees were 3rd overall and might well have been further up the podium steps had it not been for two punctures. Joe Hegarty and David Turkington survived a mechanically troubled final stage to take 3rd in class and 4th o/a. John Rintoul and Ross Hynd were 4th, Bob Adamson and Jamie Edwards 5th while Tom Coughtrie and Ian Fraser survived to take 6th in the Fiesta dominated class.
H1
The pace of Stuart Egglestone and Brian Hodgson in their Historic spec Escort Mk2 was mind boggling. They finished 8th o/a and first in class despite backing off on one stage when they smelled rubber – but it was coming from a car they were catching which had a puncture. I’ll tell you what though, full marks to Brian for sitting beside such an eedjit. They finished nearly 4 minutes clear of the Escort Mexico of Robin Shuttleworth and Malcolm Smithson, who were awfy lucky to finish, as they found a loose steering arm at the finish caused by a stretched bolt! They also had a near miss in SS1 when they encountered the car in front stopped in a narrow bit of the stage and the crew had left the doors wide open! Douglas and Alexander Graeme Menzies were 3rd in their Escort while Paul Rawson and Paul Wild were forced to retire their Escort with no brakes.
H2
Keeping it tidy and dodging the rocks led to first in class and 12th o/a (just behind Eggy) for Steve Bannister and Dave Robson in the Mk2 ahead of the RS1800 of Robert Gough and Jack Bowen who thoroughly enjoyed their day despite a puncture in SS4 when a stone sliced a tyre as they tackled a hairpin, but then again they were using tyres left over from the recent Nicky Grist Rally. Jim Robertson and Colin Maxwell had a decent run into 3rd place with the Escort despite a problem with the brakes which they managed to fix at service. Donald Brooker and Tony Booth were final class finishers in the glorious Subaru Legacy but three punctures ruined any chance of a crack at the class win.
LR
Four Land Rover Defenders started, but only three finished separated by less than a minute! Daniel Hedges and Jake William Ian Pumphrey took the class win from Ben Shackleton and George Martin and Michael Hurley and Josie Harris while John-Paul Boom and Jack Bean ended their rally in a stage 5 ditch which was bigger than a Defender!