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Rally Report - December 8, 2008 Armstrong Galloway Hills Rally, Sunday 7th December, Castle Douglas Organised by: Solway, Machars and East Ayrshire Car Clubs Jock'n'Ice Jock Armstrong and Kirsty Riddick made a lovely couple as they danced to victory on the season closing Armstrong Galloway Hills Rally, but although it looked pretty from outside the Impreza, inside the car the air was blue, and not just from the cold. Jock can work up a wonderful menu of expletives when inspired. It wasn't the fact that the stages were hard packed and ice covered, it was the fact that you couldn't see the ice or where it was. Two things gave it away though, the rev counter rocketing skywards without touching the accelerator and the countryside speeding up when you hit the brakes! A four minute winning margin sounds pretty convincing, but the difference between delight and disaster was the width of an ice skate blade. At least everyone got a taste of what was to come on the first stage. The downhill right hander, 150 yards after the stage start in Dalbeattie, caught everyone out. Ian Paterson had a spin but kept going while Lee Hastings needed spectator power to get out. As for Luke Pinder, he went so far off, all you could see was the Subaru's roof. If it was bad for the 4WD lot, think what it was like for the 2WD contingent. Steve Bannister executed a perfect 360 spin causing Louise Sutherland to comment: "We're not Bannister and Sutherland today, we're Torvill and Dean!" Seamus O'Connell spun and stalled and Vivian Hamill put the Escort over on its roof while young John Boyd's debut in the Fiesta was shotlived when it hit a rock and broke a bottom balljoint. But despite all that, one driver managed to beat 10 minutes for the 7.45 mile test. Jock did it in 9m 59s. Only one second slower was a wide-eyed David Bogie: "You should have seen some of the lines Jock was taking through there!" Seamus Donnelly and David Crossen were best of the rest less than half a minute behind but the majority of the field were taking over 11 minutes in there! Taking a leaf out of Wales Rally GB's handbook of what to do in slippery conditions, the AGR organisers had cancelled the first stage because of ice, but everyone got two runs at Dalbeattie to keep the stage mileage the same. So it was back to Castle Douglas for some re-fettling before a second run at the same stage. Jock took another two seconds (9m 53s) out of the youngster (9m 55s) with Seamus Donnelly (9m 57s) and Charlie Payne (9m 59s), in his wicked looking Lancer WRC, the only other two drivers to beat 10 minutes. It was still desperately tricky out there, despite the familiarity after the first run. Walter Henderson struck a rock and broke a Subaru wheel so he went no further. Then it was back to service before the final two tests where Ian Paterson was spotted striding out of service towards the Shell station: "My wipers just flew off the arms, so I'll need to go and buy two new ones." Brother Stuart Paterson was spotted doing some very dextrous engineering work, he was waggling wires in the Fiat. "It dropped on to three cylinders during testing yesterday," he said, "so I'm waggling them again to see if I can get it back." If that was bad then picture this, 16 miles of Cairn Edwards was next. Jock was quickest again (18m 25s) but emerged with a broken front number plate after striking a post in a ditch. "I used the ditch like a motocrosser ride's a berm," smirked Jock, "it was either that or we went off on the outside of a high speed bend!" Donnie MacDonald was an impressive second quickest on 19m 15s while third quickest was an equally impressive Bannister on 19m 25s Of Bogie, there was no sign. David had gone off. Charlie Payne went off too, although he got back on although he broke reverse gear in the process and dropped 2 minutes, ruining his chances of a result. And the tales just kept coming. Adrian Hetherington was off too as was Kenny Wills while Carl Tuer limped out with a rear puncture, only he didn't know he had a puncture till he got to the Control. He thought it was just ice! And Roland Wessel's run came to an abrupt end when he whacked and bent a bottom suspension arm. The final stage featured an 8.9 mile run through the tricky Glengap. Jock didn't let up - much, his 11m 04s was 12 seconds better than Craig McMiken and 21 seconds better than Shaun Sinclair while Donnie MacDonald was lucky to survive a trip through the trees, and back on to the road with no damage. And on a stage in which David Greer reckoned: "There was more grip on the grass, than on the gravel", there were still problems ahead. Ian Paterson put the Subaru on its ear - twice, and when Seamus Donnelly slipped off, he stayed off despite the heroic efforts of spectators. Malloch Nicoll spun and got stuck and then almost got T-boned by the following car, John Crawford was off but spectators pushed him back on and Alan Carmichael was catching cars only to be rewarded with a cracked windscreen. At the finish Donnie MacDonald and Craig McMiken were delighted with the best results of their careers so far with 2nd and 3rd places, but there was little either could have done with the on-form 'icemeister' Armstrong. Top two wheel drive finisher in 11th place was John Crawford in his Escort with Steve Bannister not far behind and delayed by a puncture. In between the two was 1600 class winner with Iain Haining in the green, white and primer Nova 2nd in class. Armstrong Galloway Hills Rally, Sunday 7th December Class Winners: Class N1: Joseph McGonigle/Alan Whyte (Honda CivicVti) 60m 17s ( Full results at: www.gallowayhillsrally.co.uk ) * * * * * |