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Rally News - July 18, 2010 Although the Mull Stages Rally had been observed by the Management Committee of the Hankook Scottish Championship last year, this change from an island based event to a full blown stage rally on the mainland prompted the Committee to look afresh at Mull Car Club’s bid to host a round in the national series. Although no decision will be announced till the end of the year, former chairman Campbell Roy, co-ordinator Robert Beck and secretary Alex Lindsay were all in attendance at the first Rally of Argyll. “We’ll present our report to the full committee in September,” said Roy, and added, “the event ran well although there are things that could be done better, but that could be said of many other events too.” “In general, Mull Car Club should be applauded for bringing rallying back to Argyll,” he said. At the present time there is no vacancy in the current eight round national series, but one possibility could be to include the Argyll Stages next year and run nine rounds. If that was the case: “We would then have to consider whether to continue to run a nine round series or make the difficult decision to lose an event,” added Roy, “but we’d have to consult more widely on that one.” Although there was some competitor criticism of double usage, most appreciated the reason that this was to keep costs down. With full blown championship status and assured entry numbers the organisers could include additional mileage in Barcaldine, Knapdale and Inverinan or even different routes in the forests used on this event. Winner Shaun Sinclair said: “It was a good event with no delays although the double usage did cut up,” while Malloch Nicoll said: “These are cracking stages, I just wasn’t going hard enough!” and Callum MacKenzie added: “You really have to be on the Notes here. There are lots of crests and wide roads, so it’s difficult to pick the correct line. It’s very challenging.” ** Reay MacKay appeared in Argyll with his new car, the ex-Andy Fenwick Subaru Impreza WRC. “My engine for the Metro is still not back yet” said Reay, “It went away last October and that was why I bought the Mitsubishi Lancer. Compared to the Metro and Subaru I just thought it was a bit boring. It goes and handles well enough, but lacks the excitement of the Metro and the Subaru.” “I managed to get about 5 miles in the car earlier in the week and took Andy Horne out with me,” said Reay, “he was pretty amazed at the traction especially from rest and out of the corners. It will take me a little while to learn all the buttons and how to drive it.” On the event itself, Reay had a troubled first four stages. “I was shitting myself on the first two, the brakes went half way through the first stage!” said Reay. “I bled the brakes after the first two stages and it was better,” he said, “but then the pedal went away again over the next two, so I bled them again. I think the system was just full of air!” He finished a steady sixth first time out. ** One time ‘Burmah Junior’ but celebrating his 40th birthday this year, Matthew Calderwood bought Reay MacKay’s Lancer: “If I don’t do it now, I’ll never do it,” he said. He’s obviously been keeping up to date with rallying’s progress as he knew who to look out for, but the Argyll was his first time out in 4WD and with a turbo. He finished 24th in the car after a cautious run: “Today was all about learning the car,” said Matthew, “I was really slow over the first two stages but by the end of the day I was getting the hang of it – and I was learning to left foot brake!” A top twenty stage time on the final test showed that steady improvements were being made. ** There were worried looks all round at first service on the Argyll when the number 2 seed failed to appear at his due time. With a distinct lack of mobile phone signal in Arygyll, it was hard to find out what was going on. A number of competitors had seen Andy Horne and Jim Howie coming out of the second stage, but then they did a disappearing act. Fortunately, the bark of a V6 heralded their arrival just before they went OTL. A very sheepish Andy reluctantly admitted: “We ran out of fuel!” ** Colin Gemmell had a weird excuse for going off the road in the first stage in Argyll. He was committed to a long left when mid way round the bend he saw a huge rock in the middle of the road. There was no way he was going to stop in time or miss it unless he took to the ditch. He did. And there he stayed, but he and Stuart Cant went up to the road to shift the rock before anyone else came – and found it wasn’t a rock at all. It was a huge lump of foam rubber! Now where the hell did that come from? ** Calum MacKenzie was trying out some new rubber from Dick Cormack, the former Pirelli competitions boss. It was maybe not the best day to be trying out the soft compound Grippa tyres as it was warm and dry all day, but Calum was impressed with the grip till they went off! But who would have predicted sunshine and high temperatures in Argyll, in the Summer? ** Oban’s Angus McNeil didn’t want to miss his first event on home soil so he hired a Ford Fiesta ST for the event. It was also his first event for three years and he finished 36th. Did he like the Fiesta? “I had a 1300 Nova before this,” he said, and after rally added, “if I had the money I’d buy it.” ** Graeme Sherry faced a hectic two weeks after the Scottish to get the Peugeot ready for Argyll. When a con-rod made a bolt for freedom on the Scottish it not only took the bottom end of the engine with it, but it shattered the gearbox casing and eloped with the starter motor. Not only that, the hot oil burst into flames and melted part of the electrics and burnt some hoses. Fortunately, ‘the Gartcosh gang’ gathered up enough bits to repopulate the engine bay, and despite having to keep one eye on the oil pressure all day, Graeme finished 34th and 5th Peugeot – job done! ** Overheard at the Argyll. “It’s 28 years since I last drove a MkII Escort,” said Jim Carty. “I’ve never rallied in these forests before,” said Andy Horne, “I only started rallying in 1982.” Walter Henderson added: “The last time I was here was the Weldex in ’89. Colin McRae was in Donald Milne’s Nissan RS and Jock Gray was in a rear wheel drive Sierra.” Sheee-it, they didn’t half make me feel young! ** Speaking of old-timers, Donald Carslaw and Dr John Duke appeared in a hired Honda Civic, and both looking seriously grey around the temples. “My first event was the ’79 Blane Stages when I drove an Avenger with Jack Baillie,” said Donald, “then I saw in ‘Motorsport News’ that this was on and decided to hire the Honda.” Both bus-chasers had a grand day out and weren’t last, they finished 39th. ** Further Afield International Rally Isle of Man 9 & 10 July Euan Thorburn and Paul Beaton had a troubled debut in their new Mitsubishi Lancer on last weekend’s International Rally of Man. Even so they finished second behind Jonny Greer, while both Alastair Fisher and Daniel Sigurdarson failed to finish. Having only swapped to the EVO9 from the TEG Sport Impreza the week before the rally, Euan was not yet up to speed with the car and then had his confidence knocked a bit with a soft brake pedal. Compounding his problems was a faulty starter motor, and he got a 30 second penalty booking into one of the Controls. He bent the steering on the 14th stage when he clipped a rock and clouted a wall on the final 17th stage but was well pleased with 9th overall first time out in the Mitsubishi at the finish. Dave Weston Jnr was in action on the island too and finished 6th overall wit Ieuan Thomas, losing out by one tenth of a second to Finland’s Jarkko Nikara. Who knows what might have happened had Weston not got a puncture on the first day and dropped to 29th overall? So sixth place was a tremendous achievement. John MacCrone and Stuart Loudon finished 13th overall in their Fiesta, but Elfyn Evans got the class with a superb 8th place overall. It was a still a remarkable result considering MacCrone and Louden’s lack of experience especially at this level and on this island, and also considering the fact they got a puncture on both Stage 15 and 16. They were luckier still on the final stage when they cowped the Fiesta on its ear after a clipping a kerb at a square right, but the good ol’ speccies had them uprighted and on their way within seconds. The IoM speccies have had plenty of experience of that over the years. At the finish John said: “It’s great to have finished the event and even better that it’s been our best overall result so far this year. I was happy with the times we set, especially when the roads were wet and I was able to step up my performance during the weekend. But one of the biggest things I’ve taken from the rally is the importance of the pre-event recce. On stages that are technical and fast like these, its vital to have a consistent level of information in the pacenotes – and that all starts on the recce.” It was also good to see young Peter Taylor back out in a Fiesta after his bad accident on the Jim Clark. Even more fortunately, Andy Richardson is on the end although he decided to give the Manx a miss! ** Even Further Afield Jim McRae will be taking part in this week’s Barbados Historic Rally Carnival driving a Francis Tuthill Porsche 911 and on this tenth anniversary of the event, the Rally Carnival will be supporting the Colin McRae Vision charity. Barbados Historic Rally Carnival founder Greg Cozier, said: "It is a great privilege to be associated with Colin McRae Vision and its admirable objectives. Our event is thrilled to assist wherever possible in promoting the fund-raising efforts, through the sale of merchandise at the various motor sport and social events." Just looking at the rally timetable, it will be some week. The competition got underway yesterday( Saturday 17th) with a RallySprint and today (Sunday) there will be a hog roast and party starting at noon. Then it’s three days of recce-ing followed by a Drivers’ Briefing on Thursday, and a party, followed by the final day of recce-ing on Friday. On Saturday the actual rally takes place and the prizegiving with a party will be staged from 12 noon on Sunday. And the best bit is, if you fancy going over there yourself, there are deals to be done! ** Over the past two weeks, Ford’s new Fiesta RS World Rally Car, has successfully completed more than 2000 kms of testing. The car was fitted for the first time with a prototype 1.6-litre turbocharged engine, based on the new Ford EcoBoost road car unit. The agreement of the engine specification in March was the final major technical decision to be confirmed by the FIA, in advance of the introduction of the WRC's new formula in 2011. The tests marked a significant step forward in the car's development as the introduction of several key components edged the Fiesta closer to next season. The car is based on the Ford Fiesta S2000 rally car, built to FIA S2000 regulations and which won first time out on the Monte Carlo Rally, in January this year. The prototype engine used in the test contained the revised turbocharger that will be mandatory from the start of next season, along with the 2011 engine cylinder block, con rods, pistons and crankshaft. French tuning firm Pipo Moteur is due to finalise the new direct injection cylinder head shortly. The chassis and transmission are also close to being tested in next season's specification. Testing will continue on asphalt, gravel and rough gravel surfaces in France later this month when the latest engine update will be incorporated and the 2011 electronics will be introduced. The car is due to run in full 2011 specification for the first time in September. Styling has to yet to be finalised but it won’t be that far removed from the car which we saw running ahead of the IRC in Scotland last November. Ford of Europe's motorsport chief Gerard Quinn said: "The team has completed a tremendous amount of work on both gravel and asphalt in the last few weeks. Despite the delays earlier this year in the confirmation of the technical regulations for the engine, we are exactly on schedule with our development programme and that is a tribute to the efforts put in by everyone involved." Malcolm Wilson was equally enthusiastic about progress. "To hear the positive comments from the drivers during testing was fantastic. All the hard work during the design and development process begins to bear fruit when the drivers get behind the wheel.” Malcolm actually took the wheel himself for about 70 kms during the testing, but he’s the boss, he can do that! "We will continue to steadily introduce 2011 components as our testing programme goes on. We still have much to do before the car's WRC debut in Sweden next February but I'm hugely encouraged by what we have achieved so far," he added. Sweden's P-G Andersson completed 1100 kms on asphalt testing and Matthew Wilson added a further 1000 kms on gravel. Afterwards Matthew said: "It was a huge boost for the whole team to drive for 1000 kms with no major problems and shows that we are making good progress with the car's development. Testing will continue and I'm sure that as we rack up the kilometres, we'll learn more and more about the car." The new Fiesta will replace the Focus RS World Rally Car. The Focus has won 43 world rallies since its debut in 1999 and has also won the manufacturers' world title in 2006 and 2007. It has scored points on an amazing 125 consecutive world rallies, a record dating back to the start of the 2002 season! And Ford is the only ‘British’ manufacturer still competing on the WRC. ** |