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Rally Report - Tuesday 20 April 2010 Station Garage Mitsubishi Granite City Rally, Saturday 17th April Bogie Bags Granite Three different winners on three rounds of Hankook Scottish Rally Championship so far, and not necessarily the names you would expect to see, although it was only a matter of time before reigning champions David Bogie and Kevin Rae did the business. That they did last Saturday on the Station Garage Mitsubishi Granite City Rally. Vintage stuff, but by crackey they had to work for it. Jock Armstrong and Kirsty Riddick were second after a steady run while Mike Faulkner and Peter Foy’s third place was secured, but only after a visit to the grocer’s shop! Fair weather, but cold, greeted the 118 crews at the rally start in Aboyne with the 2WD cars up to 2 litres (8 valves) running ahead of the 16 valve 2 litre cars and the 4WD classes. That meant dust of course, and yet this strange wee nation of ours still had snow in places in the deeper parts of the forest! SS1 - Help for Heroes Pitfichie, 3.88 mls, dry, tight and technical “It’s an age thing,” joked Paul Benn, “I always start quick and then get slower as the day goes on!” And so it proved. He and Richard Cooke were fastest (3m 30s) on the opening test in their new Focus WRC1. It was only the second time out in the car after their third placed finish on the Malcolm Wilson stages but that opening blast only set them up as a target for the rest. Andy Horne and Jim Howie led the pursuit in the reinvigorated DAM only two seconds behind (3m 32s). A further two seconds back, David Bogie/Kevin Rae shared third fastest (3m 34s) with Mike Faulkner/Peter Foy and Wayne Sisson/David MacFadyen. A further second adrift (3m 35s) were Jock Armstrong/Kirsty Riddick, Alick Kerr/Neil Shanks and Shaun Sinclair/Chris Hamill. Bogie was looking relaxed at the end of it though: “I was just settling myself in,” he said, “the diffs were on Medium setting so I’m going to tighten them up for the next two.” As for Armstrong: “I’m just fannying around with tyres,” he said, “conditions are so changeable it’s difficult to decide what to do.” Already in trouble though was Bruce McCombie. He had a rear puncture and broke a rear suspension rod, and the throttle was sticking on! Frank Kelly’s run of bad luck continued. After his troubles on the Border and an accident in Ireland, the car was looking fresh and fit again, till he rumbled out of the first test on a puncture! SS2 – Whitehaugh, 7.37 mls, dry with muddy stretches. Bogie was quickest (7m 01s) in the second test: “This is the best the car has been this year,” he said, “the cam sensor was a problem on the last two events so we changed it for this one and fitted a new fuel pump. The power and the delivery are much better.” Next up, only a second down was Shaun Sinclair (7m 02s) and faster than Armstrong and Sisson sharing third quickest (7m 07s) ahead of Horne (7m 08s). Faulkner, Kerr and Benn all shared 7m 13s but Barry Groundwater was struggling: “I can’t get to grips with it at all, I’m going backwards!” Davie Hughes had a moment too at the slippy bit. It must have been scary, it was “a reaching for the fags type of moment”. Steve Bannister was in trouble this time. A stone took a brake pipe off, but he was able to fix it on the road before the third test. SS3 – Station Garage Clashindarroch, 7.02 mls, dry, with snowbanks in places! Bogie was on the case now (6m 53s), despite a big ‘clunk’ from underneath the car at one point, but nothing was damaged. Armstrong was quicker this time too (6m 56s) from an unhappy Faulkner (7m 00s): “I’m just not hooking up with it,” he puzzled, “all three stages so far have been very different each time – and there are so many quick guys behind us these days.” One of those quick was young David Wilson, sharing Faulkner’s third quickest time! Benn was still in the hunt (7m 07s) but had stalled it on the start line of the stage and the best Kerr could manage was (7m 08s) although it soon became clear why: “Fifth and sixth gear broke early on, I’ve only had four gears all day. Top speed is about 70 mph. The car’s just back from TEG Sport, and it was going well till this happened!” he said. Not far off the pace was Horne, but there was some hectic activity at service. “We hit a hole hard and damaged the front suspension,” said Andy, “we can’t find anything wrong but it’s not handling right.” Horne had been blinded by catching the dust of the car in front, and it was soon easy to see why, Sisson had punctured, and the flailing tyre had taken a brake pipe with it. So bang went his chances of a decent result on the day. Sinclair was in trouble too. The Lancer was down on power. The exhaust manifold was blowing and the car was losing power, especially when he was looking for drive out of corners. And even though Sisson was having his own problems, he took the time to go over and have a look at Sinclair’s car to check out that nothing else was wrong. SS4 – Aberdeen City and Shire Blackhall, 5.2 mls, dry. After service, the early runners were already on their way to the fourth test at Blackhall when the call came through to delay any more leaving. Over 3,000 people had thronged the forest and access was restricted due to parked cars. It was almost as bad at the fifth test in Glenfarquhar, the bright spring weather attracting record crowds. They were in for a treat. Armstrong and Faulkner tied on fastest time at Blackhall (6m 01s) while Bogie and Sinclair shared 6m 03s. Barry Groundwater/Daniel Paterson had their best stage of the day here with 6m 05s ahead of Horne now with an ill-handling DAM on 6m 11s. They couldn’t rally find anything wrong or out of shape at service, but there was something up with the damn thing’s front suspension! Sisson made more trouble for himself in here though: “My own fault,” he said, “It was stupid, I was trying to get back all the time I had lost, it doesn’t work that way in rallying!” McCombie’s run finally ended in here. After his earlier troubles he went off and got stuck. SS5, Glenfarquhar, 7.62 mls, dry. In Glenfarquhar, Bogie snatched back a mere two seconds (7m 25s) from Armstrong (7m 27s) while Faulkner’s challenge was wilting (7m 32s). He had been puzzled earlier by a lack of drive at times, and had put this down simply to the changeable conditions earlier in the day, but he now sensed there was more to it. The clutch was slipping and he suspected an oil leak was the cause, so he made an emergency stop at a grocer’s shop, bought a bag of flour, and poured it into the clutch housing! It worked. Kerr was still plugging away with his four-speed Subaru and shared 7m 33s with Wilson, and both were ahead of Sisson (7m 36s) and Sinclair on 7m 37s. SS6 – Caledonian Logistics Fetteresso, dry, fast and flowing. Mindful of last year’s slip-up when he beached the Lancer on the final stage, Bogie made no mistake this time and was quickest (10m 28s) through the superb Fetteresso, but right on his tail was a beaming Wilson (10m 31s) who had thoroughly enjoyed the speed and the conditions. Armstrong was only two seconds slower (10m 33s) while Faulkner and his bread-making clutch (!) hung managed to earn fourth quickest with 10m 36s. Surprisingly, Kerr’s Subaru with its enforced speed limiter was still quick enough to take 10m 42s from Sisson (10m 44s), but there was a sting in the tail for Sinclair. He slid off and rolled. There was little damage and no glass broken and once recovered the car drove back to the rally finish. Groundwater nearly went off at the same bit, but just managed to avoid Sinclair’s car although both Paul Cooke and Scott Murray ended their rallies in here when both went off. Even Steve Bannister was caught out. Trying to hold on to his top ten finish, he overcooked it and spun across the road. The hot stalled engine taking forever to fire up again. Even though he finished third, compared to last year’s victory, Faulkner was left facing the same dilemma as last year: “It looks as though I’ll have to do the Jim Clark again,” he said. Armstrong was still looking confident: “That was better, the car’s improving all the time,” while Bogie is also a facing a dilemma. Now that he’s got the Lancer sorted, should he use it on the Jim Clark – he’s already entered it in his Dad’s Metro 6R4! There was another wee surprise for Bogie at the event prizegiving. Event sponsor and Mitsubishi dealer Bob Shepherd of Station Garage offered to refund the Entry Fee to the rally winner - if he or she was driving a Mitsubishi! On each of the three occasions he has sponsored the rally, a Mitsubishi Lancer has won, so Bogie’s win makes it three in a row. Drinks all round then, eh? The Classes James Aitken’s solitary campaign to resuscitate a 1 litre class in the Hankook series resulted n another win in Class 1 with his Nissan Micra, but it’s getting very lonely out there! Mike Rae won Class 2 in his MG but was lucky to even finish this time. The car developed an intermittent, but regularly occurring, electrical fault which stopped the engine frequently during the rally. Colin Grant in the Skoda was second with Rob Ashwell third in his Nova. Finishing fourth with her third finish from three starts was Kirsty Jarrett in her Honda Civic. Fraser Wilson broke a driveshaft exiting the hairpin on SS4 and retired. Class 3 winner Mike Stuart in the Sunbeam put his success down to his ‘lucky pants’ – white with red hearts! – and the shameless hussy even showed them to me at the finish, while he was still wearing them! It fair put me off my steak pie later that evening I’ll tell you! Garry Pearson finished second and top 205 but was able to back off on the final stages when series rival Sean Robson slid off and banged the front n/s quarter. Malcolm Robertson salvaged third in class even though he had “bits falling off” the Sunbeam and had to weld up the axle at service. He also changed rear arm after SS4 and the car wouldn’t start for the start of SS6. Steven Smith was pleased with fourth and better pleased to e on the pace of the front runners after a string of mechanical problems with the car. And he might have finished a wee bit higher had it not been for catching cars in SS2 and 3. Jamie Watson’s car was down on power and reckons the air flow meter needs to be replaced while Blair McCulloch, caught a car in the dust in SS4 and it took ages to get by, then he spun and stalled it! Charlie Munro lost over a minute with a rear puncture and after fitting a new camshaft on Thursday night Alex Pirie was still running it in during the rally! Graeme Smith, caught a car in each of the first two stages, and got the front end shotblasted for his trouble and headlights broken. Euan Duncan won Class 4 despite losing a little time behind the damaged John MacCrone, and then had a scary moment when he tried to take a Left 5 in the 4th test! Graeme Schoneville was second but he was even luckier. The engine light came on at the rally start in Aboyne and the engine lapsed into ‘safe mode’. Apparently engine temperature in the V-Tec engine is critical and if there isn’t even air-flow it shuts down, so the start of each stage was slow until he got some air flow through the radiator and then it was balls out and away we go. Despite some quick times early on, Alasdair Graham was unable to maintain his challenge on these two and had to settle for third. The car was spluttering badly below 5000 rpm due to over-fuelling he thought but once up the rev range it was OK, but he was constantly losing out on the slow stuff. Then he bent the rear axle on the 4th test. Stevie Brown was fourth and John MacCrone wasn’t. First time in a LHD car, Stevie ept rubbing Andrew’s side along ditches and bushes, removing the door mirror in one incident with Andrew shouting at him to gte back n the mdidel of the road. Things were fine until the gearstick broke in the 4th test although the Greer Motorsport boys swapped it over for the handbrake lever and he did the final stage with no handbrake. As for MacCrone, running first car on the road he slid off on the marbles on the first test and then suffered the indignity of the “slowest roll ever” when the car slid again on the loose stuff, just teetered over the edge and fell on its roof in the second test. It was virtually unmarked and the glass was intact but there was no point in risking it further with the Pirelli Rally this coming weekend. Grant Inglis was fifth and admitted: “I was rubbish in the morning, but got going better in the afternoon.” Ross Hunter was in trouble from the start, having to pump the brakes to get a pedal and eventually he retired on the final stage. Ruary MacLeod also suffered mechanical problems and he stopped in SS4. Stewart Davidson’s normally ultra-reliable Proton started mis-firing in SS3 before the fuel pump failed in SS5. James Robertson was lucky to finish. He had clutch problems from the start of SS1. The Citroen was OK when the clutch was cold but slipped badly and ‘worser’ as it got hotter! Bill Davidson had similar problems. His clutch wouldn’t release properly, so starts were a problem but once on the move it was OK. The Nova was also back on 14 inch wheels after trying 15 inch wheels to get a better top speed. The experiment was adjudged unsuccessful! And to cap it all, he holed a piston in SS6 and didn’t think he’d make the finish, but he did. Euan MacKay nearly didn’t finish when the crank sensor failed mid-SS6 and the revs dropped. He stopped, jumped out of the car, unplugged it then plugged it back in, and it was fine - but forgot to put the intercom back on! David Cameron was a solitary finisher in Class 5 his Escort MkII when Jonathan Smith lost his brakes in SS2 and 3. He tried winding all the bias to the front to try and get a pedal but it was snatching horribly all the time. Lenny Morrison won Class 6 in his very smart Escort MkI but was struggling to get 2nd gear at times because the gearbox was sticking and Allan Smith in his Ford Focus won Class 7. Steve Bannister took Class 8 from Frank Kelly, Malcolm Buchanan and Mike Horne and Colin Hay nearly didn’t make it. He went off on the last stage, got beached, and he and Arlene (”it’s done my nails in!”) were furiously digging it out as the closing car arrived, but after pleading with them to look the other way for a few minutes, got it out and got a finish, and of course, some valuable Hankook points. Scott Walker was a lonely finisher in Class 9 with his 2WD Mazda 323, while Bogie, Armstrong and Wilson finished in that order in Class 10. Stuart walker had two 360 spins in SS3 but got stuck in Clashindarroch. Even though he had a puncture in the first stage, Malloch Nicoll won Class 11. He actually switched from Group N to Group A for the Granite in his regular GrpN Mitsubishi Lancer on the basis that: “These Group N boys are getting too quick for me now,” he chuckled. The move obviously paid off with a class win over Jim Carty in his Subaru. And despite their troubles, Faulkner and Kerr took the top two places in Class 12 ahead of Paul Benn. John Rintoul, had to switch off the anti-lag in SS1 because the turbo was stalling and Dougal Brown broke driveshaft in SS1, but got out in afternoon for the Trophy Rally and then clipped tree trunk in SS6 and bent the rear suspension. Alasdair Graham reckoned he had more opposite lock moments in his Subaru than in his MkII when he caught a car in the dust in SS5 and Steven Ronaldson had a bolt in a rear wishbone of the Metro come slack allowing the wheel to wander. He thought it was a puncture but was able to tighten it up on the road section. Fergus Doncaster caught a car in SS2 and lost a head light then had a slight oil leak from a driveshaft gaiter. First time out for some years, Richard Stewart forgot to switch on the diffs for SS1. Dohhhh! David Ross was lucky to suffer only panel damage when overshot a chicane and landed in ditch and Ally Reid got caught out by the snow ruts in SS3 and spun, wiping off the front bumper. ** There was however one little hiccup in the day’s proceedings which came about at post event Scrutineeering. Euan Duncan’s win in the Honda Civic Challenge will remain provisional pending a Stewards’ decision. Challenge organisers cannot exclude competitors, only the Stewards can do that, and a report has been submitted to the Stewards regarding the legality of ‘non-standard door mirrors’ and ‘some other matters’. There were no such problems in the Brick & Steel supported Peugeot 205 Challenge where Garry Pearson put his Challenge title bid back on track with a convincing win ahead of Steven Smith. Jamie Watson continued his strong rallying debut season with another fine third in class. ** Results: **** |