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Rally Report - 28th July 2009 Mercury Motorsport Stages Rally, Saturday/Sunday, 25/26July Sprightly and Spruce Bruce On this form Bruce Edwards, Jim Smith and the 2 litre Darrian look about as unbeatable as a concrete egg. They scored victory on the fourth round of the Hytorc Scottish Tarmack Rally Championship at Ingliston by two and half minutes. Robin and Vanessa Hamilton gave valiant chase until the 10th stage out of 14 when a wrong-slot cost them dear. Alan Gardner and Robin Nicolson therefore took second place, but their position was also under threat early on until the opposition wilted under the fierce heat of an Ingliston afternoon. But perhaps the real winners of the Mercury Motorsport Stages Rally were all those who took part and the organising team behind the two-day event. It was the first time Ingliston had played host to the format as opposed to the previous two years at Crail. OK, so the stages might be a bit better at Crail, but at least the Royal Highland Showground has a luxuriously sized toilet and shower block for all the campers. And it had accommodation for the party games that Saturday night. Many folk took the opportunity to camp it up - in tents I mean - and any discomfort encountered from sleeping bags and groundsheets was soothed by the pre-night time application of a wide variety of spirits and fluids - internally that is! Day 1 Question - What is the melting point of rubber? After the first two runs, Michael Glendinning stepped out of his Escort, took one look at the rear tyres and headed up towards Ronnie Thom's tyre trailer. Gubbed in 9 miles! It was a similar story for most of the rear wheel drive cars and even the four wheel drive mob were having difficulty stopping their tyres from running molten rubber down the gutters. Anyway, it looked as though Edwards was going to have a fight on his hands, because it was the Hamiltons who opened the scoring, two seconds faster on the first stage. However, it was Edwards by six seconds on the second test, and that was it, job done. Fair do's, Robin was wringing the Metro's neck all day, but the Tupperware GT was just a few seconds ahead at the end of every stage. That's not to say Bruce was having an easy time of it, he was like a thoroughbred racehorse, unzipping his ovies and going for a cool-down ride on his bike after each run of two tests. A single slip and Robin would have been on the case. There was no let up from Hamilton either, and in an uncharacteristic bout of over-enthusiasm he nerfed one of the large marker bales and damaged the front o/s wing and wheel arch. He also managed to pick up a nail on the fourth test. And canny lad that he is sent Vanessa into Edinburgh during the lunch break to get the tyre fixed at Farmer's Autocentre. She made it back in time for the start of the fifth test! That left everyone else fighting for third place. Alan Gardiner was looking like the 'likely lad' although Martin Elsdon was never far behind the Escort's tail. But when the Lancer's turbo failed on the sixth stage, Elsdon was out. By this time, folk were wilting like flowers in the desert. Ross Fernie retired on the third test when the Cosworth's diff failed and Nigel Atkinson in the ex-Murray Grierson/Jim Oddy two wheel drive Metro smacked a pole. John Paterson was next to go when he took 'wrong direction' at a stage split and Barry Hogg was forced out when the Astra started shearing wheel studs. Gardiner's times were like a red rag to a bull with a whole herd of Mark IIs chasing his tail. Chris Abel was really on song and from where I was standing I reckon his steering box oil must have been as hot as his tyres. He was giving it big licks on all the corners. Michael Glendinning was slightly more tidy, but as for the three stooges, Alistair and Kenneth Wilson, and David Hughes it was tyre reek all the way. Why set a good time by driving all neat and tidy, when it is so much more fun to go sideyways. Hooligans! Billy Cowe and event sponsor Ian Forgan were in the hunt too, but Billy lost three minutes in Stage 4 when a tyre marker got lodged underneath the Subaru and almost set the car on fire. Ian's time loss on Stage 7 was less dramatic with a clutch problem. Chris Singer and Jim Sharp took the 'steady away' approach to the day's activities. This was only Chris' second time out in the Lancer having sold his well-sorted Peugeot 106. He's still not sure if he likes the Lancer, and Ingliston is not the place to let it stretch its legs. Jim Sharp was being kind to his Subaru, gentle on the twisty stuff and all set to make up time on the more open parts of the stages, although 'open' is a relative term at Ingliston. But the real star of the show over the early stages was Kevin Dunn. After six stages he was lying sixth overall in his 1400cc Vauxhall Nova - and he still had time to stick his right arm out the window to wave to his spectating crew. Cocky sod! And then the clutch forks broke inside the gearbox. He managed to get round the final two stages on Saturday afternoon before an overnight gearbox-out repair was called for. No party for them then. Day 2 In the early hours of Sunday morning it started to rain, although most of the revellers were safely zipped up in their sleeping bags - or in the case of one front-runner, lying on the ground beside his sleeping bag almost fully clothed! Whatever, it wasn't just the grass that was wet, so was the tarmac. Throughout the morning's four stages, showers skittered across the sky, but they made little difference to Edwards' progress. The Darrian shrugged off the rain and set the pace again. Hamilton's efforts in the Metro were mighty but the speed difference was roughly one second per mile and try as he might, Hamilton couldn't get the gap to Edwards down and when he caught 'traffic' at one point in Stage 10, a momentary lapse in concentration saw him take 'wrong direction' at the split. He was out. Keeping it neat and tidy, yet quick, Alan Gardiner assumed the runner-up role although Chris Abel was in full 'yee-haa' mode trying to close the gap. He did actually take time out of Gardiner on some tests, but not enough. Glendinning was in the fight too till his gearbox broke, so Chris Singer moved into the top six while Jim Sharp was moving up the leader board although frustrated at times catching slower traffic after the splits. Having appeared at the previous Ingliston in his Ford Puma, Chris Anderson appeared this time in an EVO9. The Puma's engine was being rebuilt and was not quite finished so he got the chance to drive the MSR Motorsport Lancer. It was quite a step up for the 17 year old, and Ingliston is not the ideal choice to debut such a car, but he finished 22nd overall and didn't so much as knock a wing mirror off on a bale. Gary Douglas finished a wee bit further back than that. Although the BMW 325 driver started off well on the Saturday, the car started to misbehave on the Sunday and it was a struggle to get it to the finish, but it did! Bruce Edwards and Jim Smith therefore scored a hard earned victory after 74 miles of hard going, and it has helped to 'secure' their position at the top of the Hytorc Scottish title chase, but that could all change. The next four rounds of the championship are rather different to the first four. Game on boys! ** The Classes With only two starters in Class 1, Kevin Dunn and Fiona Douglas managed to win it despite their troubles. The clutch almost lasted on Sunday, but they had to push the car out of the last stage! Brother and sister crew, Kenneth and Janet McRae finished second in their ex-autograss Peugeot. It was Kenneth's 18th birthday and Maw and Paw had embarrassed the lad with shiny stickers all over the service van. Last time out at Ingliston the wee car broke its diff, but behaved itself this time although Janet proved herself pretty practical when she fixed a broken intercom with a hair bauble (one of those elasticky things)! Andrew Fry and Chuck Blair were lucky to finish, never mind win Class 2. In the closing stages of the event, the Rover was overheating and boiling over so had to be topped up at the start of each stage. Alec Brown was only 23 seconds behind, first time out in a front wheel drive car. He had borrowed John Boyd's Citroen Saxo to compare against his usual Sunbeam so was pretty chuffed with second in class. In third place was Alasdair MacCrone, the 17 year old is the most recent 'graduate' of the Isle of Mull 'Bear Cubs' rally scheme and was driving his first rally. Carin Logan was fourth despite a maximum on one stage when the Saxo cut out, and stopped dead mid stage, and Michelle Rugg completed her first ever rally with fifth in class despite losing her brakes on the final two tests. James Ford failed to finish when his Peugeot dumped its oil on the first stage, but an overnight engine change had him back on the stages on Sunday and Nigel Hepburn was an early retirement too when the Citroen broke a driveshaft n the first stage, but he too got it repaired for Sunday. Allan Brodie and Cameron Fairbairn were the stars of Class 3, the 1600cc MkII giving the 2 litre jobs a run for their money. Mind you, he had to be careful. Early on, the rev counter and shift light failed so he was having to change gear by ear. From where I was standing it sounded good! Stewart Davidson scored second in class with his Proton, despite dropping time on the first day with a broken driveshaft and a disintegrating exhaust on the second day. Gareth White was giving these two a hard time until the Citroen broke a driveshaft in the penultimate test. Third in class was Michael Davison in the other Proton ahead of the Peugeot 106 of Graeme Sherry, while Chris Stothard was forced out with a burst radiator and Martin Murray broke a driveshaft. Brian Pringle lost time when the throttle cable broke and he finished Stage 11 on the ignition key and Andrew Blackhall retired his Fiesta with engine trouble. Bruce Edwards took the honours in Class 4 from Chris Abel and Alistair Wilson. Kenneth Wilson was fourth ahead of Wattie Warwick and Michael Willis in the other Darrian. Drew Barker scored his first non-finish in months (years?) when a bottom arm broke, the wheel moved backwards and chafed through oil filter which the dropped all the oil on the road and Paul Stuart was another retirement, courtesy of a 'wrong direction' move at a split! David Cranston managed to finish despite a broken rose joint in the gear linkage and Geoff Simpson was another with gear linkage troubles, losing the use of 1st and 2nd gears for the first few stages on Saturday before they got it fixed. Paul Stuart was another non-finisher when the gearbox mounting broke after the Escort landed heavily over the yump. Dew Struthers finished 9th in class but ahead lies a return to the drawing board. The results of his latest 'chassis tuning' developments left him with too much understeer! Alan Gardiner won Class 5 from Chris Singer and Jim Sharp with David Hope fourth and Billy Cower recovering some time loss to get fifth ahead of Dean Thirwell who was on his first visit to Ingliston, although he was left frustrated at the end of the first two runs on Sunday. His 'wets' were all over the place on Sunday morning and he dropped time which meant he was getting stuck behind slower cars at the splits. A change to slicks helped later. ** Results: Mercury Motorsport Stages Rally 1 Bruce Edwards/Jim Smith (Darrian) 109m 46s Class 1 ** |