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Jaggy Bunnet Rally News - October 05, 2011 Scots Abroad A puncture cost Alister McRae outright victory in Japan on the latest round of the Asia Pacific Rally Championship, but his points tally now put him into the lead of the series from team-mate Chris Atkinson. After the rally, Alister said: “The puncture was pretty disappointing, but the upside was the speed we showed on this rally. I’m pretty confident we would have had the performance to take maximum APRC points here without that [puncture]. The car was great during the event; we had no problems. You can really see where the development is coming and the potential of the PROTON is being unleashed. What I was really pleased with is that the roads here in Japan probably suited the turbocharged Group N cars more than they did our car, but we showed that we had the pace to beat them. Now we go to China for what’s going to be a great fight between myself and Chris. Before that, though, it’s back home to Scotland for me, for the Rally of Scotland. It’s nice to be arriving as the leader of the FIA Asia-Pacific Rally Championship – and really nice to arrive with some solid seat time just a few days earlier.” Looking ahead to this weekend’s Rally of Scotland, Alister was pretty upbeat: “It’s always nice to come home to compete again. And it’s good to come home with plenty of competitive seat time in the Satria Neo. Rally Hokkaido was a bit of a double-edged sword, really. We were really disappointed not to win the event, we had the speed with the car until we got the puncture, but then we finished second in APRC, which was enough for us to lead the championship with one round to go.” "But now, the focus is on Scotland. We had a good finish here a couple of years ago, when we finished second in the PROTON. The competition is going to be really tough, there’s a good, quality entry for the rally.” "The new stage on the Friday night is going to be a big challenge to everybody, especially with it running in the dark. In October, it’s just possible there could be a wee bit of rain or mist around, just to really spice things up a bit. After that, it’s onto the familiar stages on Saturday and Sunday – and these really are some of the best roads in the world. I know I’m a Scotsman, so I’m possibly a wee bit biased, but Scotland’s a fantastic country and the Rally of Scotland is a great rally to come and watch.” ** Home News & Gossip Stephen (the Stookie) Lockhart is mending well after his contretemps (that’s French for cowped) on the Coltness CC test day. On the last run of the day, the Mitsubishi left the road and Stephen broke his right arm in the ensuing bump. The car’s OK, but it’s now in the bodyshop, which meant he had to withdraw his Tunnock’s Mull Rally entry. Forget the weather, Shaun Sinclair’s biggest complaint at the weekend was that he couldn’t get a decent picture on the TV in the motorhome. He was trying to watch the rugby on Saturday morning, but it was his own fault. He had damaged the satellite roof aerial driving under some trees! Neil Shanks’ rally didn’t last long at the weekend when his driver Tim Pearcey had to retire the Escort with a broken gearbox near the end of the first stage. The ladies (and two gents) of the Aberfeldy & District Inner Wheel ran the catering tent at the McRae Rally and they were up to their culinary best as usual. All proceeds go to locally based charities and the rally is regarded as a major fund raiser. Hot rolls were £2.50 and the cakes were 50p while it was only a £1 for teas and coffees. Donnie McDonald should be OK to start Rally of Scotland despite his wee ‘off’ on the McRae. Once the Lancer was dragged back up on to the road, Donnie fired it up and drove out. Kieron O’Kane fair enjoyed his McRae outing even though it was only his second event on gravel in the Ascona. He told me after the rally that he’s spending a lot of time working this side of the Irish Sea these days so we’ll see more of him next year. He’s also building a ‘new’ Ascona, but this one is designed for gravel rallies, not his present tarmac car. Mike Faulkner was initially pretty disappointed after the McRae and so narrowly losing out on the Championship runner-up position, but he soon perked up – and then perked down again, when he realised what lay ahead of him on Sunday. A few weeks back, following the death of a colleague at work, Mike volunteered to run the Great Cumbrian Run to raise funds for MacMillan the cancer charity. So at 9.30am on Sunday morning, Mike was down in Carlisle with the vest and running shoes along with well over a 1,000 other runners. He wasn’t last. He finished 915th out of 1162 finishers in a time of 2hrs 14m 21s. The winner’s time was a mere 1hr 11m 15s, but had it not been for Mike’s exertions the day before, late finish and early start the next day, then I’m sure he would have done much better. Nice one Mike. And finally ... Did any of you notice that whenever Stig (the real one) stopped at the Viking Motorsport service point on the McRae Rally, that before he stepped out of the car, someone put down a carpet tile for him to step on to. And no it has nothing to do with royalty or celebrity, it simply keeps his racing booties dry and clean. The mark of professionalism in other words. And besides Royal Axminster don’t do common carpet tiles! And finally, finally ... Speaking of royalty and celebrity, Jonathan Lord was stewarding in Aberfeldy at the weekend and came to a damsel’s rescue in her hour of need. Apparently Eleanor was having trouble getting to sleep in the Moness Resort. That was down to the luminescent, garishly green glow from the ceiling mounted safety light. Every room had one and you couldn’t just pull the bulb. Anyway, our esteemed ‘knight in tarnished armour’ had a brainwave. He draped and covered the light with his elasticated y-fronts. I’ll bet she got a bigger fright when she got up in the morning. ** Rally of Scotland – National Rally – Route/Timetable: Saturday 8th October Rally of Scotland – International Event – Entries of Note: Rally of Scotland – National Rally – Entry List: ** |