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Rally News - November 28, 2009 Afterthoughts on Rally of Scotland Meeke Mugged in Scotland Kris Meeke, Paul Nagle and Peugeot were robbed of victory on last weekend’s Rally of Scotland. The ‘mugging’ took place at post-event Scrutineering. Rumours started to circulate quickly when Results were declared provisional, and stayed that way! The problem centred on the font subframe. Under FIA rules, this item has a tolerance of plus 5% or minus 2% and the Scrutineers reckoned it was underweight. The trouble was, they had nothing accurate enough with which to weight the item. On Thursday the subframe was taken to Intercontinental Rally Challenge champion Kris Meeke has lost his Rally of Scotland victory after the front subframe of his Kronos Racing Peugeot 207 S2000 was found to be underweight. Meeke's victory had been declared provisional following post-event scrutineering last weekend, but a final decision was delayed until Thursday as initial re-weighing of the component in question proved inconclusive. The subframe was then taken to a Government Weights & Measures office where it was finally and officially declared underweight. "After due deliberation the stewards noted that Peugeot UK and Peugeot Sport admitted lack of control in the manufacture of this subframe," read an official statement. "The stewards also recognised that there was no fraudulent intent on behalf of the entrant or manufacturer." The Stewards therefore excluded Meek and Nagle and confirmed Guy Wilks and Phil Pugh as rally winners in the Skoda. Peugeot had initially intimated that they would appeal the decision if Meeke was excluded, but that doesn’t look likely at the moment. Meeke and Nagle are still IRC Champions because the title was sewn up before they reached Scotland. But that begs the question. What made the Scroots suspect that the subframe was suspect in the first place? We’re talking an item that weighs around 9.68 kgs! Fingers crossed for Alister McRae next year. Chris Mellors was running him in the Proton on RoS and the boss of Mellors Elliot Motorsport is keen to run him on the full IRC series next year, but of course, it's all dependent on budget. Trouble is Proton themselves also seem to be pretty keen for Alistaer to the do the Asia Pacific Championship for them, which would make more sense as Al is now based in Australia. And whlst it would be good to see Alister back full time in a rally team, it would be better for us if it was IRC rather APRC.Jim McRae failed to ‘start’ the RoS as Course car in the Ford Sierra Cosworth following a recurrence of the problem which afflicted it on the McRae Rally last month. This time it happened before the rally start which precluded him from starting. An oil seal where the pump is connected to the steering rack had failed and had dumped oil over the engine bay, including over the turbo. Now if that had happened at the end of the stage when the turbo was ‘rid hoat’, who knows what might have happened? Matthew Wilson was driving the new Ford Fiesta S2000 ahead of the rally but stage times were inconclusive. Where they did get a clear run, Wilson and Scott Martin reckoned the car was pretty much on the pace of the others. The main objective for the weekend was to get to the finish as the organisers had already lost one Course Car! But M-Sport were also keen to put miles on the car. The 2 litre car is lighter than the World Rally Focus and the drivetrain lacks the sophistication of the bigger machine, but that apparently makes it more of a challenge, and more fun to drive! It changes direction much quicker and because you can’t bull-doze the corners like a WRC car you have to ‘drive through’ them. But I’ll tell you what, I was standing there in the Service Park on a very still and cold Saturday morning when I heard the Fiesta coming through Achray. It sounded fabulous. And you know what? As I stood there, I was transported back 30 years to Gallacher, Heggie and Grierson on the Tour of the Trossachs. It sounded that good! Willie Bonniwell had a new Mitsubishi Lancer EVO9 in place of the Albar Subaru. Apparently he expressed interest in the car on Mull where it was being driven by John Swinscoe. On a ’try before you buy’ type of deal, Willie had the car out on RoS. Driving sensibly earned him a top ten finish and that was despite two punctures and a stone through the intercooler. Sounds like another potential winning combination for next year’s SRC. By the way, did you know John Swinscoe made most of the Kevlar panels for the M-Sport Fiesta S2000? If you need any kevlar panels for your own car, he’s your man. Overall, the organisers did a brilliant job of putting on last weekend’s RoS. It was a big task for a brand new team, but they would never have managed had it not been for the hardy bunch of individuals who rallied round to help. For instance, Graham Bruce (navigating for Brian Watson) and Ian Shiells (Michael Robertson’s navigator) were out building stages all week in the run up to the event, marshalled on Friday, and then co-drive on Saturday. With more folk like that we could rule the world. After the rally, Trossachs stages Commander Stan Quirk (and long time co-driver to the famous and infamous) said: “I will never ever again complain about Marshals. What they have to put up with rally after rally in all weathers is quite unbelievable.” Amen to that, Stan. He got soaked and chilled to the bone, but he loved it. The week before RoS, Angus Williams was in hospital, apparently getting some bits cut out of some tender regions. But he wasn’t going to let a little thing like that stop him. With some additional padding tucked under his race suit protecting his stitches he climbed aboard Alan Cameron’s Subaru for the National rally where they finished 11th overall. So whilst his Doc thought he was at home recuperating, he was actually hurtling around the woods in Aberfoyle. The biggest surprise of the weekend was that Rab MacDonald was 68 on the Saturday. Crikey, I thought he was older! That clean living young man Neil Shanks stepped out of Stuart McQueen’s Ford Puma at the end of RoS and declared himself to be a “passive 20 a day smoker after a weekend with McQ”. As we all know, depending on how fraught a time, Stuart is having with whatever vehicle he is driving, be it Lancer, Puma or service barge, he always finds a smoke calms his nerves. Apparently he was like an old style chimney last weekend. And finally ... **** |