----- SiteNav ----- |
Jaggy Bunnet Rally News - October 12, 2011 International RoS Our lot didn’t do as well on the RACMSA RoS as we had all hoped with John MaCrone and Stuart Loudon saving some Scottish honour with a class win and 17th overall in the Tunnocks/Palletforce Fiesta. Ruary Macleod and Keir Beaton were 21st, first time out in the new Fiesta and Alex Laffey finished 23rd in his Fiesta after re-starting on Saturday morning under the SuperRally rules. David Bogie and Kevin Rae didn’t finish when they lost a rear wheel off the Lancer, Alister McRae and David Hayes lost all the Proton’s oil, while Peter Taylor and Andrew Roughead in the Clio snapped two driveshafts. Graeme Schoneville and Michael Hendry had the unluckiest rally of all. They didn’t even reach the first stage due to collecting some venison on the hoof which was delivered through the Honda’s windscreen! Fortunately the boys were OK. ** Pirelli Star Driver Shoot-out David Bogie and Jonny Greer have been confirmed as the final nominees in the 2011 Dulux Trade MSA British Rally Championship’s Pirelli Star Driver competition. They join the already nominated six 2WD nominations. The Pirelli Star Driver shootout will take place during the week of 14th November. The winner will be announced at the Dulux Trade MSA British Rally Championship awards night on Saturday 19th November. The nominations for the 2011 Pirelli Star Driver shootout are: ** Tunnock’s Mull Rally If you’re going over to ‘The Island’ this weekend for the annual Tunnock’s Mull Rally then look out for the rally programme. It contains a full entry list and spectating information – which is important since spectating on this event is rather more difficult than on other stage rallies, either tarmac or gravel. There is always a strong Police presence on the island too, and they don’t tolerate idiots too well, so get to your chosen vantage points in plenty of time and park your car sensibly. If you don’t, and your car is not parked sensibly – then it might not be where you left it when you return! Unfortunately, there will be no ‘MullMurmurs’ bulletin service by yours truly this year. I had to advise the organisers in March of this year that I wouldn’t be available to provide the service. Bill Sturrock is going to provide some sort of field results and bulletin service, but he reckons it will be difficult to get any more than six bulletins out during the course of the rally. It has become increasingly difficult over recent years to provide the level of coverage and service that the rally merits, and this year’s route makes the logistics even more difficult. Over the years I have had a few helpers, but none of them lasted the pace, and it’s been virtually a one-man job on the compilation side of things with Bill’s help on the distribution. Bob Milloy will be conducting the Rally Forum in the Aros Hall on Thursday. However, there will be a FULL report on the rally on this website next week after the event – so it’s not as if I have disappeared off the face of the earth entirely. I will be there in spirit and in person - it’s just that I won’t be doing the Bulletins, but I wish the organisers and the rally well. I understand John Fife will be updating his Blog from the rally too, so gie it a birl at the weekend. ** Regs Available - Armstrong Galloway Hills Rally Running a lot earlier this year is the Armstrong Galloway Hills Rally on the 30th of October! Regs are now available for the 42 stage mile event which has less than 80 road miles. And at £435 it is the cheapest entry fee for a gravel event in Scotland this year! Plus all Service and Management packs are free. The rally will start and finish in Castle Douglas with centralised servicing andwill start at 08:30 am and should be all over by 2 pm. Stenaline will once again be supporting the event by offering special ferry rates to Irish competitors. The compact nature of the event and early finish time means that crews from across the Irish Sea can catch either the 17:30 Navigator or 19:55 HSS sailings from Stranraer to Belfast. Previous winners include Kris Meeke and David Bogie – and just look at them now! Full info at: http://www.gallowayhillsrally.co.uk ** Russ Langthorn Russ Langthorn who was injured in the first stage accident on the McRae Rally two weeks ago is still in hospital in Dundee and is just waiting for an operation before he can be transferred south nearer home. Members of his family are staying locally and members of Coltness Car Club are visiting regularly. But the good news is, he is on the mend. ** The Rally of Scotland was Peter McLean’s last ever rally in this country. Although he’s been over here for ten years and navigating for David Newall, he is going ‘home’ to get married next month. In Peter’s case, ‘home’ is on the other side of the world in a place called Oztracisia, or something like that. Apparently it’s full of furry spiders and six foot tall rodents, so rather him than me. I’m sure we’ll all miss his cheery chops, but I’m also sure we all wish him well with marriage and living in the boondocks. Another man who said this was his last outing in a crash hat was Iain MacIver. “After doing Course Car duty with Donnie MacDonald last year I said that would be my final outing, “ said Iain, “but when Jim McRae asked me to do the duty this year in the Subaru Legacy I agreed, but this is definitely my last time in a rally car. After 32 years it’s time to hang up the helmet, besides my fourteen year old son, Craig, is starting the Junior 1000 series in a Nissan Micra last year. He’s ready for his BARS test now but he’s not 14 till June – and he can’t wait!” You’d think a man of his (middle) age and experience would have more sense, but he mixes with a bad crowd these days, so he deserves all he gets. Anyway, Brian Watson has gone and bought himself an ex-Rallycross 2WD Metro 6R4. “I’m going to take it back to 4WD with a Jaguar engine,” said Brian, “it’s cheaper than a 6R4 engine and you can buy a bell-housing to fit it straight to a Metro gearbox so it’s a relatively easy job to do.” Another driver who should know better was Andrew Jamieson who appeared in a Honda Civic Type R at RoS. “This’ll be my first time in a FWD car and my first time in the forests since the Tour of the Trossachs in 1979,” said Andrew, “and that was in a Vauxhall Viva HB.” Sadly, he slid off the road in Loch Chon. No damage but had to get pulled out. Note to younger readers – ask your Dad what a Viva was. Gavin Chalmers retired his Ford Focus from the National RoS on Stage 11 with either gearbox or clutch trouble, but wasn’t too downhearted: “We’re building a 1600cc Ford Fiesta ST,“ said Gavin, “and hope to have it ready for the Galloway Hills.” If it is ready then there is the chance that Alan Smith will drive it to set it up ahead of next season. There might even be plans to hire it out if Gavin sticks with the Focus. Nigel Feeney’s Impreza WRC wasn’t ready for RoS so he hired an N11. Now he’s not so sure if he wants the WRC back, his times were pretty good towards the end of the rally. “You have to drive the N11 harder than the WRC car but it’s easier to set up. It’s also less costly to run.” I had a wee chat with a visitor from the deep south (Englandshire) at RoS, Alistair Hutchinson who runs the Renault Clio LPG. Normally a full tank of LPG will do all the stages on a one day rally and he uses petrol between the stages. It’s difficult to top up the LPG tank during an event, but he was able to do so on the RoS because the BP station at Perth has a gas pump. Apparently it cost only 14 quid in fuel to do the Friday night stages. Worth a thought, eh? Speaking of fuel. Jim Carty explained the reason for his retirement – after he had calmed down. “A friend told me he had a couple of cans of Sunoco which he wasn’t going to use because his car was not ready and he agreed to bring them up to Perth for me,” said Jim, “but the he hit a snag and asked a friend of his to pop round to the garage, collect the cans and bring them up to Perth. Which he did. We topped up the Subaru ahead of the rally on Saturday night and it wouldn’t pull worth a damn. We didn’t know what was causing it, so topped up the tank again on Saturday ahead of the re-start. Within 50 yards it stopped dead. Going nowhere. We tried everything but it wasn’t until we broke into the fuel line that we realised what was up. It was diesel. Apparently the chap who was sent to collect the cans, lifted the wrong ones!” The names of Jim’s ex-friends have been withheld to save embarrassment. Spotted spending a lot of time looking at, in and under the Historic rally cars at McRae Rally Scrutineering was a certain Charles Samson Esq, the 1975 and ’77 Scottish Rally Champion. When accosted and questioned he vehemently determined anything other than nosiness and passing interest. Methinks he protesteth too much. Time will tell. And finally ... Following his recent territorial dispute with gravel roads and trees, Graeme Sherry straightened out the panels on his Peugeot 205 as best he could so that he could contest the RoS National. The finished job would have looked better in the Tate Gallery than it would in a car showroom, but it needed some paint. He phoned the local Halfords to ask about their shoogle and spray cans: “Have you got any Peugeot Cherry Red?” he enquired. “Yes” came the response, so off he went down to the store clutching the readies: “I’ll have sixteen cans please,” he said. Apparently, Halfords have now run out of Peugeot Cherry Red. **** |