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Rally News - April 8, 2009
Charterhall Chatter
There must be a lot of demented Dads around the country these days. Take Ian McRae for instance. The Lanarkshire CC stalwart's 17 year old son Kenneth McRae has a rally car and an autocross car. This weekend he will be driving his wee Peugeot 205 Rallye on the Howford Hydraulics Stages at Ingliston and will probably be the youngest driver there. But after tackling the rally on Saturday it's straight home to get the Peug off the trailer, and load up his Citroen AX for Central Scotland Autograss Club's first race meeting of the season on Sunday. This will be his fourth stage rally, as he gains experience in the 1400 class.
Another Dad adding to his worry lines is Graeme Mack. Taking advantage of the MSA's relaxation of age rules to encourage newcomers to the sport, Graeme had his fifteen year old daughter Jordan along as co-driver at Charterhall. "This seemed to be the most suitable event for her first," said Graeme, "I haven't been out for a while so I was rusty. Crail was too fast, Ingliston too technical and this was just right. She's been hooked on rallying right from the start and has been pestering me daily since she turned 15." Prior to stepping into the ex-Petch Hyundai Lantra for the first time, Jordan was apprehensive, but excited, and by the finish she was ecstatic: "I've been wanting to do this for years," she exclaimed, "but I don't want to stop here, I can't wait till I'm 17 and can start driving." Dad look out!
( that's Graeme on the left by the way, the one with the beard! )
Michael Glendinning has a new project on the go. "I'm building a MkII Escort," said the Subaru Impreza driver, "it's a proper 'Group 4' shell with a 5 spd Tran-X box and Vauxhall 2 litre engine, but I've got a BDA in case I want to build it to Historic spec. It wouldn't take much to finish it, so it's a matter of choosing an event to try it out, although I would like to do the Colin McRae Stages at the end of the season." Michael was up at last year's McRae with a camper and a had a whale of a time, maybe he caught the MkII bug there.
Carl Tuer was spectating at the Charterhall Stages just a week after an operation to his left (clutch!) knee. "The Doctor said I've not to drive for 10 weeks, but the Jim Clark is just 7 weeks away," said the MG ZR driver, "I drove here today in an automatic and I can walk around fine, so I'm hoping to be OK for my local event." He added: "It just means I can't crawl around on the garage floor to get the car ready, so brother Rob will have to do all the work!" It just proves the old adage that rallying is dangerous - look what years of kneeling on cold garage floors has done to Carl, old before his time.
If you can't have a giggle while enjoying your sport then you might as well give up. With two rally-daft boys on the go, imagine the scenes in the Pearson household at weekends. Anyway, Monty reckoned it was his turn to go rallying at Charterhall. It's 9 years since he last drove in the white hot heat of competition, but he blagged the Corsa for himself and left Robbie kicking his heels in service. As for a co-driver, the best he could come up with was Colin Aitchison who last drove his Chevette in Barbados in 2005 with Monty as co-driver, so it was Colin's turn to co-drive. To say that Monty prepared himself well for the upcoming speedfest is a bit of an understatement - as the sign on the rear window of the Corsa testified. He had all his excuses ready and raring to go, the trouble was he didn't cross them off as he progressed, so quickly lost count. Hey, but a top ten finish was pure dead brilliant so it wis!
It's amazing how this rallying lark gets folk, especially families. Mike Riddick was a class winner and front runner in the 80s and his wife Isobel is a stalwart of the Galloway Hills organisation team, so it was no surprise that daughter Kirsty caught the bug and she's now one of the country's top co-drivers. Well, guess whose wee sister is now clutching a clipboard. Mairi Riddick was co-driving for Iain 'Bert' Haining at Charterhall. A bit of a surprise that. On her first ever rally with Bert, he cowped it on the first bend of the first stage of last year's Scottish Rally. She must be a glutton for punishment, it didn't put her off!
If anyone thought that organising a closed public road rally would be easier and/or cheaper than a forest event here's a tiny wee insight into the problems that face those brave and bold club heroes who take on such tasks. Whilst chatting to Colin Pagan about the forthcoming Jim Clark Rally he let slip that the financial turnover on this year's event is likely to be in the region of £280,000. And this is supposed to be an amateur sport? But here's one of the daft wee problems that is thrown up each year. The Post Office charges the event a thousand pounds to hire extra vans to get the mail delivered quicker before the roads are closed. Even dafter is the fact that the PO never bothers to specify the colour of the vans it hires. So imagine what's going through the Marshals' heads when they see a wee white van on the stage! Now, Jaggy has an idea. Why not hire a few horses instead and send the posties across the fields. Problem solved, and a thousand quid saved. And here's a thought, it's exactly 15 years since Berwick & DMC and Border Ecosse CC started the whole process to get roads closed and this year is the 12th JC.
And finally. It wasn't funny, but when the wind got up at Charterhall, it nearly took the Scrutineering tent with it. It was a like a scene from the great 'tea clipper' races of the 1800s when the canvas filled with air and prepared to take off across the airfield. Even Willie Greig was dangling from the guy ropes as the Scroots and officials grappled the sails to the ground. Willie should know better at his age!
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