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Rally Report - May 27, 2009 Jim Clark Reivers Rally, Sunday 24th May Bogie’s Berwickshire Benefit David Bogie and Kevin Rae scored their first victory in this year’s Hankook Scottish Championship when they won the Jim Clark Reivers Rally, and in doing so became the fourth different winners in four events. It was also a good day for Euan Thorburn and Claire Mole. They finished second overall providing the Duns youngster with his best rally result to date while Willie Bonniwell’s third place with Dave Robson ensured that his title hopes are still very much alive. Close? You couldn’t separate them with a wet teabag. Maybe the WRC should come to Scotland to see how it should be done! But by goad it wiz a scorcher. There were thousands of red necks and red faces amongst the sunburnt and windblown spectators, or as one well known commentator put it: “They had faces like well skelped erses.” There was plenty to see too, with a huge 159 car entry for the Reivers event. And maybe that contributed to the day’s problems. When incidents happened, of which there were a few, the impact on Road Closure Times compounded by 30 second starts, forced the organisers to make unpopular decisions. Indeed, some of the later runners only got three full stages out of the eight and left for home bitterly disappointed. Four stages were to be run twice on the day, and since they followed on from the Friday and Saturday international event, they were numbered SS18 to SS25 and totalled some 62 miles centred on Duns. Accounting for the high entry, the Hankook regulars were joined by Hytorc Scottish Tarmac competitors, foreigners from the S G Petch North East Championship plus the local Borders Championship crews. Fortunately for the organisers and marshals, warm sunny weather greeted everyone on the day and maybe that accounted for the high number of accidents and incidents, with drivers being affected by heatstroke and sunstroke – as if they needed an excuse! SS18 – Harehead 1, 6.61 mls, Dry Standing there at the end of Harehead looking up the valley, it was the sun glinting on paintwork that heralded the arrival of the Andy Fenwick/Lee Tindall Skoda Octavia. It came swooping down the glen like an Exocet homing in on the Flying Finish boards and swept passed the spectating throng with a whoosh and a flurry of dust. Quickest (5m 45s), but not the most impressive. That came next. Steve Bannister and Louise Sutherland were second fastest (5m 50.8s). The BDA was on full song and Ethel was in full flight. Utterly marvellous. Suddenly, there was a collective gasp from the massed ranks. Still carrying huge velocity, the Escort stepped sideways on the left hander just after the Stop line, but Banner held it, although the tail end sent the boards flying. Ya beezer! Only a second and half behind (5m 52.3s) was young Euan Thorburn, with Claire Mole (nerves of steel that lassie), aiming to improve on their 4th placed finish on the previous day’s international event. David Bogie and Kevin Rae were fourth quickest (5m 54.7s) after an overnight change of car. David was back in his own car while the works machine was on its way home with its bumped rump and broken engine. Rounding off the top half dozen were Jock Armtrong/Kirsty Riddick (5m 56.2s) and Adrian Heatherington/Gary Nolan (5m 58.6s) and these were the only crews under 6 minutes for the stage. Jimmy Girvan failed to make the top six after spinning on to the grass at a L6. He wasn’t alone, David ‘Smokin’Joe’ Hughes spun there too. Already in trouble was Granite City winner Mike Faulkner. The Mitsubishi came through the latter part of the stage with the flashers on. A brake calliper had sheared on a fast bit and the pedal went to floor. Still, it’s one way to find out just how efficient a handbrake is trying to slow a car from 100 mph. It’s not! SS19 – Ayton 1, 7.63 mls, Dry It was Fenwick again (6m 41.3s) in the second test at Ayton. But second fastest this time, and it wasn’t the sun glinting on metal that gave the game away, it was that wonderful, neck hair raising tune from the DAM4100 pipes of Andy Horne and Jim Howie (6m 44.1s). Still cautiously feeling his way in a different car on different tyres Bogie was a sensible third (6m 45.9s) and Billy McLelland/Helen Brown hit the score sheets with a nerve tingling run through the test in their EVO3 (6m 46.8s) just a second slower than young Bogie. Thorburn was fifth fastest (6m 47.8s) ahead of Steve Bannister (6m 49.2s) who was already concerned about his tyres. This was a technical stage with lots of square junctions and the rears were overheating badly. Unfortunately this was where the first major problem arose and John Rintoul was the unwitting culprit. When the Mitsubishi’s diff seized mid stage, it stopped the car in the middle of the road. Neither he nor Jim could shift it. Probably the result of too many pies and not enough Mars bars, whatever, they had to wait until sufficient bodies were gathered to heave the thing off to the side. At least 9 cars were affected and given Notional times, only for it to happen again later. These were the first of many such incidents during the day prompting the organisers to make unpopular decisions. SS20 – Buxley 1, 7.37 mls, Dry It was Bogie who headed the Time Cards for the first time in here. Fenwick was in trouble with a recalcitrant gearbox and Horne had broken a brake calliper. Young Thorburn was also in trouble. The Subaru had lapsed on to 3 cylinders after a hard landing at the Billiemains jump and dropped 30 seconds to Bogie. If McLelland’s time was impressive in the previous stage, then so too was Ian Campbell’s in this one. With Drew Sturrock alongside, the Mitsubishi pilot was second quickest (6m 40.3s) ahead of Bonniwell (6m 44.9s) who reluctantly admitted to a “wee overshoot, into a farm road, but I got away with it!” In the top six for the first time were Jimmy Girvan and Mike Ramsay (6m 46.3s). Although he likes tarmac, Girvan doesn’t actually have a lot of experience on it, so a cautious start was in order: “It takes some time to build up confidence in the amount of grip you get here compared to the forests,” he said. Bannister was fifth quickest (6m 49.2s) half a second ahead of MkII rival Keith Robathan and Duncan Brown (6m 49.8s). Alick Kerr finished the test with a ‘waggly wheel’. “I got on the loose at a hairpin and just touched the banking,” said Kerr, “but it broke two bolts in the hub.” SS21 – Wedderburn 1, 9.20 mls, Dry Fenwick was back at the front in Wedderburn (8m 15.0s) from Thorburn (8m 16.3s) and Bogie (8m 19.6s). Bonniwell (8m 20.9s), Campbell (8m 22.4s) and Armstrong (8m 26.4s) completed the fastest half dozen while Keith Robathan bent a steering arm. Sadly, the bad Fairy was at work on Billy McLelland’s Mitsubishi again, and he was forced to retire. SS22 – Ayton 2, 7.63 mls, still Dry It was Fenwick at the front again (6m 36.9s) on the second visit to Ayton, this time from Thorburn (6m 38.3s) and newcomer Alick Kerr/Steven Brown (6m 43.6s) who still had gravel brakes on his new Subaru as he doesn’t have a tarmac setup for the car as yet. On his first proper run since last year’s Crail, Steven Hogg/Phil Short (6m 44.2s) were on the boil from Bannister (6m 45.0s) and Bogie (6m 46.0s) while Armstrong lost time when the diff ECU failed and left the car handing like a MkII. SS23 – Buxley 2, 7.37 mls, still Dry The lead changed abruptly on the second run through Buxley. The Skoda’s gearbox gave up and the car coasted off the road into retirement, Fenwick was out. Thorburn bounced back with fastest time (6m 31.7s) from Bogie (6m 35.1s) and Bonniwell (6m 38.7s). Armstrong was next (6m 39.3s) from Hogg (6m 40.2s) and Robathan (6m 43.1s), but Buxley also put paid to any hopes Jimmy Girvan had of getting back on top of the points tables. A rear puncture cost him dear, dropping him from the top six to the mid teens. Jim Carty stalled at the hairpin while Jim Sharp went one better and backed it into the banking filling the rear wheels with muck. Billy Cowe retired after an underbonnet fire melted all the hoses and ruined the electrics and Gordon Murray finished the stage with the car cutting out after losing fuel pressure. In a bid to try and cure a day long braking problem, John Morrison fitted ‘new’ second hand brake discs at service to try and cure a braking problem while David Welsh was bleeding his clutch after he finished this loop with it slipping. SS24 – Wedderburn 2, 9.20 mls, still Dry Thorburn was quickest again (8m 07.0s) on the second visit to Wedderburn in his bid to reduce Bogie’s rally lead, with Bonniwell and Armstrong tying for second quickest (8m 12.9s) ahead of Steven Hogg (8m 15.0s). Kerr was next (8m 15.6s) from Bogie (8m 16.1s) and Campbell (8m 20.2s). It was all getting just a bit too hot and bothered out there with Mike Faulkner calling it a day. After his earlier braking problems he called it quits when the gearbox started to fail after it lost 1st and 3rd gears and he didn’t want to incur any more expensive damage. SS25 – Harehead 2, 6.61 mls, no rain all day! Going into the final stage, Bogie still had 15 seconds on Thorburn: “I’m driving with an old head on young shoulders today,” said Bogie, “it’s all about points.” But with Thorburn in ‘dynamite mode’, Bogie had to lift his pace a little just to be sure. He finished the event with his second FTD (5m 47.5s), albeit by just three tenths of a second from Thorburn (5m 47.8s) who had stalled on the stage start line and then nearly went off trying to make up time when he took a big cut – too big! Sounds like he was taking a leaf out of Pop’s book. Bonniwell was third quickest (5m 49.8s) with Bob Grant/Peter Carstairs fourth (5m 53.5s) after raping the road car for bits following their Friday night bump. Robathan popped in another quick one (5m 53.7s) although Rory Young/Allan Cathers (5m 53.8s) had to push the car over the rally finish line in Duns when the clutch cable snapped 30 yards from the Hankook arch. As ever, Armstrong was pretty honest: “I spun it. I made a cock of myself in that one.” Bogie therefore drove in to the Duns town square finish with his first victory of the Scottish season under his belt ahead of Thorburn, Bonniwell and scoring the best result of his career, Ian Campbell in fourth place. Fifth was the top 2WD car of Steve Bannister, who even with harder tyres fitted found the Escort’s rear end a bit of a handful, while seasoned campaigner Jock Armstrong rounded off the top half dozen. The wily Armstrong still leads the Hankook series at the half way point, but by a reduced margin. Bogie is now only two points adrift. With four different winners from four events so far, the title race is an **** The Classes David Martin was leading Class 1 in his Astra till he stuffed it off in the last stage! “It was my own fault,” he admitted sheepishly afterwards, “I only had a second on Kevin (Dunn) and just tried too hard.” So Dunn took the class win quite happily from Lachlan Cowan who might have done a bit better had it not been for the huge bag of sweets being carried by co-driver Garry Muir, or maybe that was for bribing marshals! They finished with no clutch. Bruce Hay hit a hole which pulled the steering wheel out of his hands and injured his shoulder and Drew Gibson nearly crashed on last corner of last stage. It just sort of teetered on the edge before coming back. Craig Rutherford won Class 2 despite losing 5th gear on the last stage and a noisy ‘box on the final run, while Fraser Wilson retired on Ayton 2 with engine problems. Pete Gibson took the honours in Class 3. He survived a scare second time through Edrom when the Nova went off backwards and filled the wheels and arches with mud. Although he lost brakes in SS1 and caught a car 3 miles into SS3, 205 runner Garry Pearson had a fairly trouble free run into second ahead of Malcolm Davey’s MkI Escort which spun in SS2 when the handbrake got stuck on! John MacCrone was fourth in class, but wanted to finish on a high so went for it on the last stage. He caught the car in front and got stuck behind him for 2 miles. Graeme Schoneville was fifth, but was disappointed to get only three full stages out of the day’s eight because of the succession of incidents. Steven Ross holed a piston in his recce car and the water pump failed on his tow vehicle but the rally car was OK. Scott Hunter had a misfire for the last 2 stages which left the Peugeot struggling out of corners and Steven Smith head butted a bale in the second last test but survived. Steven Irwin got a fright when something hit his knee, but it was only the fuse box falling off under the dash. Carl Tuer thought he had Class 4 under control so backed off in the penultimate stage and dropped 16 seconds to Rodger Donnan. “I had to do it all again in the last one,” laughed Carl, “that’ll teach me.” Even so, Donnan was lucky after sliding off and clattering the co-driver’s side of the Puma. “I had more offs on the last three stages than I’ve had all season,” said Donnan at the finish. Third placed Chris Singer lost time in the sixth test when he forgot to plug his intercom in and Mark McCulloch retired his Corsa when the engine failed. Des Campbell also failed to finish after being hospitalised when he was scalded removing the radiator cap at service! Stuart McQueen was knackered after just three stages wrestling with the Puma but went out in the fourth test, Allan Brodie spun and stalled at the hairpin in SS1 and Paul Price was off too on the first stage when the rears locked up and pitched him off. Ian Bendall spent the first half of the rally hunting for gears, but eventually got the selectors fixed. Gareth White forgot he was on cold tyres till he got to the first corner of the first stage – and went off. And on the second last stage he had a straight on at a R9 and had to spin it round to get back on the road. Peter Taylor locked up the rear wheels going into a L7 on SS1 and slid off and banged the rear quarter and Neil Thompson was a wee bit nervous after fitting a new diff. He’s done this event 5 times, finished once and the last time out he crashed. Alisdair Graham cured his overheating problems with an anti-freeze top-up, Frank Balgowan hit a bale in the second last stage and big pot hole in the last one. Ruary MacLeod finished despite a slight off on the last stage, spun across the grass and bounced back on to the road, although Hannah Cessford didn’t. The Honda was in a fence in Wedderburn. Ricky Wheeler won Class 5 in his MkII Escort, despite losing the exhaust and bursting the manifold and having to sneak past patrolling Police cars. Johnnie Thorburn was back to a standard diff in the Peugeot so lost out in corners and broke a rear shock absorber on the last stage. Euan Duncan glazed his pads in the first stage and had them replaced but retired on the penultimate test while the sole runner in Class 6, Walter Aitken, finished and therefore won a pot. This was Chris Abel’s first Jim Clark and the single venue regular beamed from ear to ear all day while winning Class 7 in his Renault Clio. Gordon Halley was second and Ian Murray was third after a big crash on Saturday which took an 11 hour stint to fix before the Sunday run. Even so, he reckoned the Astra was shorter on one side than the other! John McClory was an early retirement when the Honda’s gearbox broke and Ian Forgan over revved it in SS1 and may have bent a valve. He then had to go off road to get round a stuck car stuck in the third test and was followed by Derek Masterton doing the same manoeuvre. He had earlier been delayed on the first stage with a fuel pump problem. As for Drew Barker, I worry about that lad. His idea of pre-rally preparation was polishing the Astra. Mind you it needed it, I didn’t realise it was quite that shade of blue! It worked though, he got fourth in class. Steve Bannister ruled in Class 8 but Keith Robathan was less than half a minute adrift at the finish after bending a steering arm in the first Wedderburn and smacking a chicane on the second one. Frank Kelly was third, but one of the afternoon’s ‘notional’ times scuppered his chances of improvement. Mind you he was lucky, he nearly scuppered his own chances when he “took a tail light out on a grass banking.” Bruce Edwards was fourth after a day spent trying to get the suspension to work. Initially the dampers were too soft, but the biggest problem was the lack of suspension travel in the Darrian. There’s not enough movement for the Berwickshire roads. Later on he had one big moment when he went sideways across the grass, but ended up back on the road. John Crawford failed to finish with a broken brake calliper and Mike Horne was another non-finisher. Earlier he reckoned the suspension was too soft on the first stage so he changed it for stage two and nearly went off on the first corner. So he changed it back again. “I didn’t realise a couple of clicks would make that amount of difference,” he claimed innocently. Wattie Warwick was plagued with losing brakes by the end of each stage and at one point Graham Willcock took an interesting approach to corners when the brakes failed and he was struggling to get gears to try and slow the Manta down. Adrian Hetherington’s demise in Class 9 with gearbox trouble presented Alan Gardiner with a class winning opportunity which was gratefully accepted after a mechanically troubled start to his season. He had gear selector problems but that was fixed at second service. In Class 10 it was Bogie from Thorburn and Armstrong, while Dale Robertson failed to finish after breaking a prop shaft. Kris Tennant had to change all his brake pads at first service, after glazing them on the first stage, and Stuart Walker lost time in the fourth test when the engine went into safety mode but a change of ECU at service fixed it. Willie Bonniwell took Class 11 from Jim Carty while Keith Taylor failed to finish after the centre diff started losing pressure and he had a slight off on the first test. He tried to keep going but he said it was all over the shop. Ian Campbell topped his high scoring day with a win in Class 12 from Steven Hogg and Barry Groundwater who was struggling with the lack of a decent brake pedal all day. Willie Jarman was worried about a slight oil leak and Lee Hastings took to a field to avoid the speccies when he lost brakes in the third test at 90 mph. Ross Fernie cowped it big time in the first stage and retired and Neil Munro had a wee off in the second stage. Apparently he, “liked the scenery that much he took to it” but there were plenty of spectatorss to get him out. Chris Collie fitted new pads at first service, Gavin Read finished with a knackered front strut and David Welsh ended up in a ditch when the clutch failed but finished the rally. Peter Thornton hit a chicane bale on the penultimate stage but survived and Craig McIntosh had a misfire on the first stage and went off backwards on the second and he too survived. **** Jim Clark Historic Rally Steve Magson won the Historic Rally which started on Saturday afternoon and continued over Sunday’s stages and was delighted with the car, the rally and the stages. “After I finished building the car I did eight rallies and got one finish,” he said, “this was just absolutely brilliant today.” Bob Bean was initially quickest in his Escort but once into the quicker stages, the Opel Ascona powered into the rally lead. Charlie Tayler finally finished second demoting Bean to third with the Avenger of Brian Middlemas fourth overall. But perhaps the biggest cheers from the massed crowds were reserved for local hero, Andrew Cowan in the wee Hillman Imp. He even managed to bash the tail end: “I found out it wouldn’t go through the chicanes sideways,” explained Andrew! **** Final Results: Jim Clark Reivers Rally, Sunday 24th May Note: Full results at: www.jimclarkrally.com **** |