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Rally Report - Sunday 12 December 2010 Armstrong Galloway Hills Rally Strictly Come Skating Jock Armstrong and Kirsty Riddick skited to victory on last weekend’s 2010 Armstrong Galloway Hills Rally in the frozen south west of Scotland. I use the word ‘skited’ deliberately because it implies less control and grip than the words ‘slidey’ or ‘slippery’, and that was the case for most folks. If Jock was ‘Master of the Ice’ then there were indeed some talented apprentices following in his wake. Jock and Kirsty’s winning margin of almost a minute and a half may have looked pretty emphatic, but they were only one skite or puncture away from a white-out oblivion. Or put it another way, if we could harness adrenalin pump activity, then we wouldn’t need bluidy windfarms all over the landscape! On that basis David Wilson and Dave Robson did a stoatin’ job to finish in second place, despite a puncture in the third test, while Richard Dickson and Sanny Dobie concocted a ‘cunning plan’ to finish third. The fact that the ‘cunning plan’ did not actually work should further enhance their excellent result! It was minus 6 degrees as the 51 crews headed out of Castle Douglas on Sunday morning, and even though the sun managed to warm up during the day, it did little to thaw out the frozen ground. SS1 – Glengap, ice at start, then snow. Jock Armstrong/Kirsty Riddick started the day on snow tyres, and their 10m 06s for the first test at Glengap did indeed prove a wise choice. Although the stage was icy at the start, the snow got deeper as the cars plunged further into the winter wilderness. The big surprise was the pace of the second quickest crew, David Wilson and Dave Robson just 2 seconds slower on 10m 08s. “We were running ice tyres for the first two,” said David, “but they didn’t work so well once the snow got deeper.” If eyebrows weren’t already frozen stiff, then they would have been raised at the time set by Allan Smith and Ian MacIvor first time out in a 4WD car. After a season in a FWD Ford Focus, Allan hired a Mitsubishi from Donnie MacDonald and set a stunning debut time of 10m 42s. Half way through the first test, Richard Dickson/Sanny Dobie broke the exhaust on the Subaru at the manifold with the result that it sounded like a Hot Rod by the time the reach the end of the stage and stopped the clocks on 10m 45s. Fifth quickest were Andy Knight and Drew Sturrock (10m 51s) from Derek Jobb/John McCulloch (10m 57s). SS2 – Cairn Edward, snowy. Jock Armstrong was in a class of his own on the second test, setting 10m 56s compared to David Wilson (11m 15s) who was hoping that the ‘clonking’ from the rear end was only the exhaust hitting the prop shaft! Proving that his first stage time was no fluke, Allan Smith was on the ball again (11m 41s) from Northern Irish visitor Derek Jobb (11m 58s) while Craig McMiken and Christine Sanderson were next up on 12m 13s ahead of Nigel Feeney/Laura Marshall (12m 15s) with Nigel worrying about “something is broken at the front”. He thought his may have been a result of his recent Wales Rally GB outing as he had clouted the front end and damaged the suspension but at service found that it was a broken driveshaft. Richard Dickson lost out when he slid into a ditch with a front puncture, but just as Sanny was releasing the belts to get out and push, Richard managed to find sufficient traction in reverse to get out and on their way again. Andy Knight was another to suffer at the hands of over exuberance when he spun at a junction and just slipped off the road, but the Marshals were on hand to push him out. And had it not been for having to stop and change a rear puncture in here, Matthew Robinson might have been a top ten finisher as he went on to set some pretty impressive times in his MkII after this one. SS3 – Dalbeattie, very icy. David Wilson’s hopes of narrowing the gap to Jock took a knock on the third test when the Lancer limped out with a front wheel puncture (10m 30s) dropping a full 16 seconds to Jock’s time of 10m 14s. Having survived a scarily big backwards ‘off’ on the second stage, Ian Paterson and Helen Brown’s confidence recovered to score 11m 11s ahead of Richard Dickson (11m 18s). It was here that Richard’s ‘cunning plan’ was revealed when he admitted that Sanny had been attacking the tyres in the garage the night before with the grinder to try and concoct his own ‘snaw’ tyres. Or as Richard succinctly put it afterwards: “Pirelli have no need to be worried by Sanny’s tyre technology!” There were two more surprises on a surprising event with the MkII of Matthew Robinson/Darren Brown fifth quickest on 11m 32s and the Honda Civic of Graeme Schonevile/Stuart Loudon on 11m 33s. The 2WD cars taking time out of Nigel Feeney (11m 34s) and Craig McMiken (11m 35s) who had lost time when he got stuck broadside across the road for a bit. Andy Knight had another spin, and had to “bugger about to get it turned round and get going again” and Andrew Gallcher was putting more cuts into his gravel tyres but “it didn’t make a blind bit of diference.” Derek Jobb stalled twice and then pulled the handbrake mounting clean out of the floor but there was worse to follow. The Subaru was overheating excessively and by the time he reached Service the beast was reluctant to fire up. Malloch Nicoll was off too, and had to get pushed back on, but a broken manifold caused his retirement from the fray. SS4 – Glengap, hard packed ice in places. There was no stopping Jock now, and a 9m 42s romp through Glengap put him further ahead of David Wilson (10m 00s) while Ian Paterson (10m 34s) was attempting to reel in local rival Richard Dickson who was ahead of him after the first two stages. But fourth quickest were Richard Stewart/Tont Marchbank on 10m 37s who revealed the secret of their pace with: “We went out as if we were going shopping, not rallying!” Schoneville was impressive again on (10m 41s) ahead of Richard Dickson 10m 43s while even more surprising was the pace of Matthew Robinson. Despite a spin in Dalbeattie and a front puncture near the stage finish, he was still sixth quickest on 10m 45s. Meanwhile, Allan Smith’s strong start suffered a setback when the anti-lag stopped working and then he took out the boards at the FF trying to get it slowed down on the ice! Andy knight got a puncture and Nigel Feeney had another driveshaft fail. SS5 – Cairn Edward, hard packed ice in places. There was no let up at the front with Jock completing a clean sweep of fastest times (11m 00s) from David Wilson 11m 32s and Ian Paterson (11m 43s) just failing to catch Richard Dickson (11m 45s) for third place overall. There was yet another surprise in store when rallying newcomer Andrew Gallacher and veteran Phil Sandham scored fifth fastest (11m 52s) ahead of Richard Stewart (12m 05s) and young Schoneville on 12m 05s. Nigel Feeney rounded off a hectic day with bent steering. The Subaru landed hard over a jump and punctured a tyre in the process too. Just outside the top ten were the top 2WD cars. Eleventh overall was the Honda Civic of Graeme Schoneville despite two punctures “and we had to stop and change one of them,” he said, while half a minute behind was the clutchless Vauxhall Nova of Mark McCulloch: “We were lucky to make it,” he said, “we were saving the clutch for starts only and then not using it in the stages!” Standing at the finish was Murray Grierson “of this parish” waiting to congratulate Jock in his win, but Jock was quick to remind him: “We’ve beaten your record of three wins – that’ll do me!” The Classes Tony Jardine won Class 2 but was only contesting the Armstrong Galloway Hills to get another signature for his co-driver, Byron Young from the Daily Mail. Ruary Mcleod was second having his first run out in a Fiesta, but it was hard to judge whether it was any better than the Honda because of the conditions although he said it did feel torquier. His times suffered further in SS3, when he got a puncture and although he tried to drive on, he was forced to stop and change it - then got another puncture and with no more spares he had to keep it going this time. Peter Stewart was declared OTL at the finish following a big off when he punctured and destroyed a tyre in SS3. The remains of the tyre flew over the windscreen, then the Fiesta swiped the banking on the driver’s side and then slid off on the co-driver’s side! Class 3 Craig McMiken won Class 3 with Andrew Gallacher second, never having driven on snow in a competition car before, so this was a voyage of discovery. Andrew Wheatley won Class 4 despite: “I had rubbish tyres, because the courier bringing my ice and snow tyres was stuck in the snow on the A66 on the way here!” He slid off on SS3 and with no spectators around, lost a lot of time jacking it up and down, and rocking it out losing heaps of time in the process. James Robertson was second although he clouted a rock on SS1 and bent the steering. Thereafter the Citroen wasn’t right for the rest of the day, then he got a front puncture in SS3. Padraig Mullen took third in class in his 206. Mark McCulloch got Class 7 and by the finish his clutch thrust bearing was squealing like a stuck pig, but it survived. Mark McCleary was second even though he was off twice in Cairn Edward, but his biggest problem was that the Nova was jumping out of 2nd gear all the time. Had it not been for punctures, Graeme Schoneville would have had more than a Class 8 win to celebrate as he almost certainly would have finished inside the top ten otherwise. Second was Iain Haining and lucky to finish. He slid off on the final stage and bent the steering, but got back out and drove steadily to the finish and clinch the 5 of Clubs Championship. “I thought it was all over when I landed in the ditch,” said Iain, “we were really lucky to get out.” And in his first ever rally, driving older brother Ruary’s Honda, Gary Macleod finished third in class, a remarkable achievement especially in those conditions. Fourth in class was veteran John Midgley: “I nearly went home when I saw the weather,” he said, a view that was re-affirmed when he had difficulty getting the Toyota up to the stage start on the first test. He also punctured on the final test but as the Historic spec Toyota Levin reached Castle Douglas he uttered: “Never have I been so relieved to see a rally finish!” That’s something coming from him! Greg Pollock finished fifth in his MkI ahead of Gordon Alexander who had nothing but gravel tyres. “Two cars caught and passed me on the first stage,” said Gordon, “but no-one caught me after that!” Blair McCulloch was seventh and pleased enough with that: “I was dreading it this morning when I saw the weather,” said Blair “but there was enough grip to enjoy it.” Donald Peacock was chuffed just to finish. First time out in nearly 20 years he was giving his newly acquired 205 a shakedown before handing it over to the body Scott. Thomas Haining was next despite going off on SS3 but helped out by spectators and David Rutherford was 10th in class despite a big tank slapper at the finish of the first stage when the Nova reared up on two wheels after clipping a banking. Michael Hunter was the final finisher although the Lada Samara misbehaved all day with a misfire which defied all efforts to race and cure. George Bryson running on gravel tyres, failed to finish. He went off in Dalbeattie, but spectators were on hand to help him out, although there were no spectators when he went off in the last stage! Duncan Ferguson won Class 9 although he admitted to “one wee off” with Kevin Gemmell second while Alan McMorran struggled to get his 205 up the hill to the start line in Market Sq never mind reach the stages. Third in class was his reward for stubbornness rather than talent! Richard Dickson took Class 10 from Ian Paterson and Allan Smith, but Bernie Rooney was the star in an unlikely ice car, the Lancia Stratos. A leaky valve stem made the beast burn oil and it could be smelled long before it could be seen. Even that was in doubt as it was laying a smokescreen like a battleship steaming into battle. He even managed to smack the rear end of the car in Dalbeattie, but fortunately it only broke the fibreglass, not the car. Results: Class 2: **** |