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Rally Report - Monday 19th October 2009 D.A. Autoparts Solway Coast Rally Armstrong Reaches the Age of Maturity! There is something un-natural about the words ‘mature’and ‘Armstrong’ appearing in the same sentence, but it was the man himself who used them at the end of last weekend’s D A Autoparts Solway Coast Rally. As a result of a ‘mature’ performance from Jock Armstrong and ‘new’ co-driver for the day, Margaret Wyllie, the duo recorded a controlled rally victory by 18 seconds from Davie Hughes and Bruce Harper. It was close though. “I felt the tyre go down just a mile or so into the last stage,” said Jock, “but no more silliness, this is the new me, a mature drive was called for to reach the finish!” And he did just that holding off the silver Lancer to score a most worthy win. And what a cracking wee event Solway Car Club had provided for the two dozen crews who turned up. Four good stages and four road miles linking them! There was just one issue I had a problem with. It was called the Solway COAST Rally, and I fancied a dook – but the Solway coast was some 30 miles to the south. I’ve heard of the tide going out, but this was ridiculous. Otherwise, the venue was ideal with the host Forrest Estate allowing use of their yard and huge shed for office facilities and cover for the Scroots. It tried to rain during the day, but it didn’t really come to much, with a light drizzle turning to drizzly showers every now and again, so the stages were never really wet, just slippy. And here’s a thought. With Rally Scotland just around the corner, this would have provided the ideal shakedown for any crew who fancied a crack at the big one. SS1 - Burnhead, 6.95 miles. Dryish, gravelly and slippery. As last year’s winners, Craig McMiken and Christine Sanderson headed into the first stage first on the road, but third fastest (6m 51s) was some way off the pace. “I don’t know what’s wrong, it’s down on power. It’s lacking punch out of the corners, so I’ll need to get it looked at before the Galloway Hills,” he said. Fastest though was Armstrong (6m 26s) from Hughes (6m 40s) with Ian Paterson and David Bogie (yes, THAT David Bogie!) only a second behind McMiken. James Robertson dropped a chunk of time when the wee Citroen punctured and Stuart McSherry on his first forest rally had an eventful start to his career when the Astra’s dashboard fell apart and took the ignition ‘kill’ switch with it. Richard Dickson also lost time when 4th gear disappeared from the Subaru’s gearbox, but he carried on using the others. SS2 - Olsen Loop 1, 6.00 miles. Dampish, gravelly and slippery. It was Armstrong again in the second one (5m 43s) from Hughes (5m 52s), McMiken (6m 07s) and Paterson on 6m 08s, but this stage had quite an impact on the rest of the field. Worst off was Steven Hogg. “Phil called a R7 into a R4,” said Steven, “but I only heard the R4 - so I went into it a gear too high! I was just too quick in, caught the edge of the road, and slid off into a tree stump.” The Subaru wasn’t too badly damaged, but the radiators will need more than a few raw eggs to plug the holes! However, the downhill hairpin in this stage caused quite a few problems. Peter Stewart punctured a front tyre on the Fiesta and George Bryson punctured a rear tyre in the MkI Twin Cam saying afterwards: “I’ve tested here before and twice got a puncture at the same spot – you’d think I’d know better by now.” Alex Curran also punctured the Corsa here, but Steven Smith actually got stuck mid-stage causing Nigel Feeney to slow up to get around him. Steven had punctured a rear tyre on the Peugeot causing it to run low at the back. When he rumbled over a rock, it pushed the tank up smacking the bottom end of the fuel pump. Iain Haining fared worst of all. When he tried to handbrake it round the hairpin a wee circlip broke in the handbrake and he spun off and got stuck. He and Mairi tried to get the car out, Mairi in the driving seat and ‘Bert’ pushing. Eventually, Mairi was dispatched to find help and came back some minutes later, knackered after running there and back, but had found half a dozen blokes who eventually legged it over the horizon to help. As Bert said later: “It’s handy having a female co-driver, I don’t think they would have run back for me!” SS3 - Heiberg Road, 3.15 miles. Dampish, gravelly and slippery. Armstrong was beaming at the end of this one (2m 48s): “Margaret got it spot-on in there. No mistakes and all the calls on time,” he said, referring to Margaret’s first ever run on a rally as co-driver (she’s the wife of Robin Wyllie, the SRC Press Co-ordinator) whose only previous experience of rally cars was at practice days. Hughes was still there (2m 54s) but sharing that time with Paterson who was getting egged on/held back (depending on who you believe!) by Bogie with McMiken fourth quickest (3m 01s). It may have been a short event but it was full of incident. Dickson was in trouble again, this time the fourth-less gearbox jammed in third gear but he got through and then had to tackle the final stage stuck in third for the full 6 miles. And no, the marshals didn’t help push him off the start-line, they were just resting against the car after a long day standing at their posts! Bill Davidson in the Honda was quicker this time, after the service crew had threatened him with physical violence after a poor showing (by their standards) on the first two stages and Nigel Feeney needed a fag at the end of that one. He had hired a Donnie MacDonald Grp N Subaru for his first run out in 4WD. After a couple of cautious runs over the first two tests, he got serious in the last two and the grin said it all. Now he’s thinking of entering the Grp N class on Rally Scotland next month. SS4 - Olsen Loop 2, 6.00 miles. Dampish, gravelly and slippery. Armstrong was looking unassailable as he entered the final stage, but rallying has a habit of kicking folk in the knackers just when things are looking good. Just over a mile in, he felt the car stepping out a bit more on the bends and as he said himself “drove accordingly, taking a mature approach”. Yup, it was a puncture. His 6m 06s was only fourth quickest with Hughes getting his first fastest time of the day on 5m 55s. Paterson was second quickest (5m 59s) from McMiken (6m 00s), but Jock had done enough to clinch the D A Autoparts trophy. Still stuck in 3rd gear, Dickson finished fifth overall while Stuart Paterson rounded off the top half dozen. Tam Brown scored an excellent 7th place overall in the Peugeot 205 while Colin Gemmell was delighted with 8th first time out after a cautious debut with his new Subaru. It was also Tommy Brown’s first time out in a 4WD car and also his first time out since he cowped the MkI at Kames three years back, so 9th was a bonus, while Lee Hastings was delighted with 10th. This was his fifth attempt at the Solway Coast and his first finish, and he heaved a big sigh of relief at the finish. In fact, there was only one worried face at the finish, and that was Secretary of the Meeting, Kirsty Riddick. After the Queen of Holy Socks’ successful debut as co-driver with Jock, Kirsty’s worried she’s lost her ‘real’ job! Results: Class 2: Class 3: Class 4: ****** |