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Rally Report - Wednesday 14 July 2010 Ralloy/TSL Rally of Argyll, Saturday, 10 July Shaun’s Sure Sign of Success It was perhaps fitting that a local man should win the first event on home soil for nearly 15 years, and maybe that’s what gave him the edge. Whatever, when the flag dropped Shaun Sinclair and Chris Hamill were out of the traps like a pair of six year olds hearing the Mr Whippy chimes coming up their street. From that moment on there was going to be only one winning crew on the inaugural Ralloy/TSL Rally of Argyll. Attracted by the return of rallying to the wild west of Scotland were Paul Benn and Richard Cooke, but they were left in the Oban man’s wake as Sinclair sped through the forests of Inverliever and Minard, and by heck it was so nice to hear those names rolling off the tongue once again, even if the stages themselves had different names! And for a wee while we thought there could be another fairy tale in the making, but it wasn’t to be. Howling along in Sinclair’s wake in those early tests was the DAM of Andy Horne and Jim Howie, but it was silenced in the fourth of the day’s seven stages. The event was also being observed for possible inclusion in the Hankook Scottish Rally Championship and maybe that’s why there was such a healthy turn out of national series regulars. And although it would have been nice to see a few more entries, Mull Car Club made the decision to go ahead even though they might have lost a wee bit of money on the job. But by heck, I didn’t half have a lump in my throat when I first heard and then saw the ex-McRae, ex-John Allan MkII come up to the start line. Rachael Allan felt that it was right to have the Escort out on John’s local event and Jim Carty had been entrusted with the job of running it as Course Car. A generous thought, and very well received – and Jim didn’t put a mark on it! SS1 – Loch Avich 1, 4.20 mls. Marbly and loose, and wet in places. And so it was that Sinclair topped the time sheets at the end of the first stage (4m 49s) but not too far behind was the glorious sound of a V6 in full flight, with Horne (5m 02s) only three seconds slower. First time out in his new Subaru, Reay MacKay and Robert MacDonald were a rather breathless third fastest 5m 07s: “The brakes are gone, I had to pump the pedal,” said Reay. Perhaps surprisingly, Steven Clark and Michelle Falconer were fourth quickest (5m 08s) because despite a lack of recent competitive mileage, they were already on the pace. Not so the Cockermouth visitors. “I’m always a slow starter,” said Paul Benn with the fifth quickest time (5m 09s) ahead of Donnie MacDonald and David MacFadyen on 5m 10s. Another slow starter was James MacGillivray: “It’s my first time in the woods, and my first time in the woods with a 4WD Subaru.” Still, he did no bad, he was 12th overall by the end of the rally with a canny run. Cautious through the first stage, but for a different reason was Walter Henderson: “A front brake disc sheared and I had to toddle through the second stage as well to reach service to get it fixed,” he said. Andy Knight was in trouble too. A driveshaft broke but he reached service and got it fixed. SS2 – Inverliever 1, 6.40 mls. Marbly and loose, and wet in places. From the north side of Loch Avich for the first test, the second stage ran along the south side where Sinclair did the business again (6m 48s) by 8 seconds from Benn (6m 56s) while Stephen and Kevin Lockhart raised eyebrows with third quickest (6m 59s) ahead of Andy Horne (7m 00s) with Clark (7m 05s) and MacDonald (7m 07s) staying in touch. Reay MacKay wasn’t amongst the fastest times this time. He had run out of brakes again! And it’s perhaps a good job the run down Loch Aweside to first service was mostly single track road, because had the Polis looked at Calum Mackenzie’s tyres, they might have had a word! “Three miles from the end of the first stage my tyres were shot,” said Calum, “they were already 70% gone at the end of the first one, so those last few miles were interesting.” I’ll bet, his tyres looked more like tattered black sponges. If Calum’s tyres were shot, Eddie O’Donnell’s were worse. He punctured in the first stage and punctured again in the second so any hopes he had of challenging the ‘Hebridean Hurricane’ were already ‘oot the windae’. SS3 – Kirkmichael 1, 7.60 mls. Hard, dry and fast. The rally stepped up a gear in the wide open spaces of Minard where the roads are wide and the crests are blind, so it’s difficult to pick a line. Up for the challenge was Sinclair (7m 21s) with a very committed Horne (7m 23s) and Benn (7m 24s) breathing down his neck. Clark (7m 28s) was still on the pace too from MacDonald (7m 31s) and Lockhart living up to his earlier promise (7m 37s) with MacKenzie now on a new set of tyres sharing Lockhart’s 7m 37s. After a solid start, the tricky conditions caught out Andy Knight and the Subaru plunged off the road although both he and Kim Baker were OK. John McClory’s adaptation to 4WD from the Honda also continued to be eventful, and both he and David Hood ended their rally in here with the Subaru forming the colourful part of some Forestry Commission greenery. SS4 – Kirkmichael 2, 5.30 mls. Hard and dry. Conditions were a bit rockier and twistier in the old Birdfield stage where Paul Benn scored his first fastest time of the day (5m 21s) but so too did Donnie MacDonald, and well pleased with his efforts. Only two seconds behind were the Lockhart boys (5m 23s) with Sinclair on a slightly more cautious 5m 24s. Steven Clark was still impressing with 5m 25s, but was lucky to make the top time sheets. He had a scary moment on a long left 3 which tightened – and which then called for a change to the Notes for the second run through the same test! Reay MacKay was looking slightly more confident (5m 27s): “I think the brakes were just full of air,” he said, “that was better.” Sadly, Andy Horne’s run ended in a ditch. Two miles into the fourth test, the DAM slid wide on a long left 7, got on the ‘marbles’, and spun into a ditch. He wasn’t alone. The slippery, marbly surfaces caught out both Colin Gemmell and Stuart Walker, although Walker managed to get the car out eventually and continue. SS5 – Kirkmichael 3, 8.70 mls. Hard, dry and fast. Sharing the same start as Stage 3, conditions were a bit rougher this time, but Sinclair was back in control (8m 48s) from Benn (8m 54s) and Clark (8m 55s). The Lockharts were still going well too (9m 00s) ahead of MacDonald (9m 02s) and MacKenzie (9m 03s), but Gordon Smith in the Ford Escort was out. First time in the woods for some time (apart from the Granite), the Cosworth broke a driveshaft – and he had no spare in the van! SS6 – Loch Avich 2, 4.20 mls. Stoney and loose. The final two stages were re-runs of the first two, and with a 34 second cushion, Sinclair opted for the sensible canny approach while Benn was speeding up trying to narrow the gap. He succeeded, fastest (4m 50s) by 5 seconds from Sinclair (4m 55s) with Clark third fastest on 5m 01s. Lockhart was still maintaining his good pace with 5m 02s ahead of MacKay (5m 03s) and MacDonald (5m 04s) SS7 – Inverliever 2, 6.40 mls. Stoney and loose. And so into the final test. It was too short to allow Benn to catch Sinclair, but this is rallying, you just never know what might happen. Well, it didn’t. Sinclair was a steady 6m 58s, well behind Benn on 6m 46s, Clark (6m 56s) and MacDonald (6m 57s) but it was enough to secure his first ever outright rally victory. Stephen Lockhart rounded off an encouraging and rewarding day with fifth fastest (7m 00s): “I had a wee push on over the last two, trying to catch Donnie, but I didn’t want to throw away what I’d got – my best result so far!” Rounding off the top six fastest times were Douglas Gilbert and Laura Anderson with 7m 03s. Even more impressive was the ninth place overall at the finish, as this was Laura’s first ever rally. At the finish, Paul Benn said: “Shaun did the damage on the first two stages. After that I was playing catch up.” Sinclair was quietly chuffed: “The car’s back to the way it was earlier in the year,” he said, “it’s agile and fast and even when Paul was catching me at the end, Chris kept me right.” And now that he’s scored his first rally win, the second can’t be far away – and this is only his second full season of rallying! The Classes The best scrap of the day was in the Brick and Steel Ecosse Challenge. Grant Inglis took the Honda Civic class points by one second from Ross Hunter. Inglis was faster on three out of the day’s seven stages, while Hunter was faster on the other. Neither was without their troubles though. Inglis got a puncture in S4 while Hunter was puzzled by a intermittent losses of power during the day and also broke a link on the rear suspension in S2 but got it replaced at service. After a couple of quick runs through the first two tests Graeme Schoneville came out of the second with a ‘klunk’ from the front end. Granit Inglis was similarly worried. He too had a klunk and the car was wandering, but after some TLC at service he was back on the road – Schoneville didn’t make it. Sean Robson took the Peugeot points, and an excellent 4th in Class 2, with a convincing challenge win and an impressive turn of pace that saw him beat the best times of the Hondas on Stage 5. Graeme Smith was second after a string of troubles including a partially melted wiring loom in S1 and a puncture in S2 then bashed the front end losing some lights and attracting the interest of Her Majesty’s Polis. Luckily he was on his way into service at the time and using his youthful, angelic, innocent looks (if only they knew!) and most sincere expressions of intent to fix it all up before the next stage, they let him go on his merry way. David Crozier was third Peugeot, Steven Smith fourth, but Garry Pearson had a miserable day with a car that kept cutting out. Initially he thought it was fuel surge but reckons it might be more than that and Mark McCulloch was going well till he retired with two stages to go. Stewart Davidson actually finished third in class ahead of all the Peugeots, but his Proton had a blowing exhaust by the finish and his home-made sequential gearbox was starting to play up. Ruary MacLeod was fifth in class but only after replacing a burst water hose at the end of S3. Graeme Sherry struggled to keep one eye on the road and one eye on the oil pressure gauge, as he had fitted a new-ish engine after his comprehensive blow-up on the Scottish. He also had the fuel pump punch it was through the floor on the last stage! Jordan Black reached the finish and was lucky to do so. He punctured a tyre in 4th gear on S2, and had a huge spin on a wide section of road. Had it been narrow he would have been off but ended up facing the wrong way in a truck sized lay-by. Class 3 Calum MacKenzie won Class 3 from John Boyd in the Fiesta ST who was using this event to try out a new partnership with Chris Williamson. It was a good work-out for the Fiesta ST Challenge contender as he experimented with suspension settings all day too. Richard Spink was third having competed on the Weldex Rally held here over ten years ago and revelled in the conditions: “You get a lot of corners for your money up here!” he said. Eddie O’Donnell’s day didn’t get any better after his first two punctures on the first two stages: “I got two more on the last two!” he said. Craig Rutherford was having his first run out in the ex McClory Honda and was going well until the exhaust came off in S3. Apparently, it’s very noisy inside the car, especially at 9000 rpm! I said ‘what?’ - IT’S VERY NOISY INSIDE THE CAR, ESPECIALLY AT 9000 RPM! Oh, please yourselves, is that one too subtle for you? Matthew Fisher had a puncture in the last stage in his MkII and the fan belt came off, Donald MacEachan in the MkI had a clutch problem on the first stage but it was OK after that and Lorn MacFadyen had the LSD fail on his MkII in S2 and ran all day without it. Class 4 Malloch Nicoll got two 7th fastest times during the day and finished 8th overall but it wasn’t enough to get into the class points. Instead, Shaun Sinclair took the class and Gerry Kilmurray didn’t. Gerry was plagued with clutch trouble all day. It worked well enough on the move but the clutch pedal sank to the floor on every stage. Weird! The clutch that is, not Gerry. Mind you, on second thoughts! It was good to see Raymond Mason back in Scotland. He had a puncture in the final stage but just enjoyed ‘the craic’ and being back in Argyll. Nigel Feeney had a good run, finishing 10th overall and that was despote an off in the third stage when he got distracted by seeing the arse-end of McClory’s Subaru sticking out of the trees! Matthew Calderwood spent the day trying to master left foot braking while David Newall had his chance of a top ten finish scuppered, first when he had a rear puncture in S2 and then another in the final stage. Alasdair Reid had a puncture in S2 and a turbo pipe came off, Robert Mathieson had a puncture in S1 and Hamish Grant lost time in S2 when the Lancer cut out and stopped in S2. He fiddled about with the ECU and it fired up again! Gordon Stoddart had reason to smirk at the end of S3: “I was in a ditch, and oot a ditch, and away again. It was a fast downhill bit, I was lucky!” Tommy Mackin had a good run, just a rear puncture in S4 slowing progress and Tommy MacKay retired his Lancer with turbo failure in S5 ** Results: Ralloy/TSL Rally of Argyll Class 2 **** |