---- CONTENTS ----
|
Rally Report - Tuesday 20 July 2010 July Rally Time Trial, Sunday, 18 July Gardiner’s First Win in the MkI Alan Gardiner and Alan Todd won last Sunday’s Time Trial at Kames and set fastest times on three of the day’s four stages. It was dry for most of the afternoon but a series of sudden heavy downpours ensured the last runs were held in streaming wet conditions. Even with ‘dry’ tyres the width of an opera singer’s behind, Gardiner still managed to set the fastest time on the last stage to clinch his first place. He missed out on a full set of fastest times because Billy Cowe was quickest in his Subaru on the first one. Billy was giving his Impreza an airing before the Tyneside Stages in two weeks time and it was a good job he did. The rear diff broke on the second stage putting him out of the running. Better here than there! George Bryson was going well but every time he looked like getting close to Gardiner, Alan squeezed the MkI just that wee bit more. On the third run, George nearly came to grief across the Flying Finish. At the pace he was going at the time there was no way he was going to get it stopped before he hit Muirkirk village but a big tyre smoking spin ended up in the pebbles. Ever the professional, Jaqueline had her arm out the window with the Time Card even almost before the car had come to a halt. But it was so far embedded into the run-off area that the tow-truck was called before they could resume. Chris McCallum was going well till he clouted a tyre marker on the final stage and splayed the steering while Bob Adamson defied the laws of common decency and sensibility with some stirring runs in his brand new MkII. In fact it was criminal what he was doing with that car. It should have been on the mantelpiece in a glass case, not on a bleedin’ racetrack in the flippin’ rain. Gawd it’s beautiful. Sadly, Duncan Ferguson ruled himself out of the scrap when he flipped his newly rebuilt Escort on to its roof, and this was its first time out since its roll on the Galloways Hills! But for sheer entertainment value, Bernie Rooney took the top award with his antics in a newly acquired Mazda RX7. There were times when he didn’t know if he was driving a lawnmower or a rotavator, he spent that much time on the grass or in the pebbles! Still, what he lacks in talent he makes up for in enthusiasm! In third place overall was Barry Lindsay in his Peugeot 106, and had it been wet all day, he might have been higher than third! Barry’s doing the Tyneside in two weeks so this was more of a shakedown for himself than the car as he’ll have to change the gearbox for Tyneside to get the right ratios. He won Class 2 from Blair McCulloch who just managed to hold off Geoffrey Harkness for second. John Willis got the wee class from Steven Bogle who had a bit of a misfire in the Mini when the rain came down but Steven still leads the four round Rally Time Trial series with two class wins and a second so far. And just before I sign off, I couldn’t resist this titbit of advice from the doyen of cheapskate rallying, oops, sorry, I mean to say budget rallying, specialist Tony Fleming. His boy Neil was driving the family Peugeot at Kames this weekend, but last time out at Crail, Tony found the 205 a bit undergeared, so pondered the problem of how to resolve it cheaply, oops, sorry, me again, I meant to say cost effectively. Anyway he came up with the idea of fitting a 309 final drive. He phoned around his list of usual scrappies, oops, there I go again, I mean vehicle recycling centres, but came up empty handed. Then he hit on a novel ploy, if he couldn’t find the bits maybe he could get a whole car. And considering he found his original ‘cheaper than chips’ 205 on Ebay in the first place, it wasn’t such a daft idea at all. Now bear in mind, our Tony is no spring chicken and yet he has mastered the electronic trickery of this interwebnettybay system remarkably well so he let his fingers do the talking and came up with a 309 for 100 quid. That’ll do me says Tony, now where is it? It’s only in bleedin’ Cornwall init. Undaunted, our hero who now qualifies for cheap public travel has bought a one way rail ticket to go and collect the car this weekend and drive it home. The dearest part of the whole deal is going to be the fuel to get it back! Nice one, eh? Doncha just love a trier? Results: Class Winners: **** |