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Jaggy Bunnet's Rally Report - Monday 15 August 2011 UsedCarParts.co.uk Solway Coast Rally, Sunday 14th August Doing it the Hardie Way Although he lives just up the road and roon the corner, David Hardie has never contested his local event, the UsedCarParts.co.uk Solway Coast Rally, but he’s had mixed fortunes on this year’s REIS MSA Asphalt Rally Championship, so he fancied a wee run-oot on his local event. With John McCulloch on the Notes, it proved to be a worthwhile outing, for the duo returned home with the trophy and the glassware! It was wet as the 43 starters gathered at Dundrennan for the day’s eight stages, but it actually started to dry out after the first two stages, and by the afternoon, there was actually grip to be had. Unfortunately, most folks turned up with slicks and tarmac tyres, for it soon became apparent that some form of knobbly would have been best. It wasn’t so much deep mud and gravel, as slittery loose and slidey tar. Given his performance in the national series, this year, David was expected to go well, and over the first stage that proved to be the case (5m 34s), six seconds quicker than Mark McCulloch and Craig Wallace (5m 40s). This was surprising on two counts. It was Mark’s first run out in his new Subaru and he was using David’s old tyres: “They were green with mould and moss when I got them,” said Mark, “they were lying outside – but they had tread on them!” And the way his wee eyes lit up and the way he said it suggested to me that this was a novelty – tread! Anyway, third quickest (5m 45s) was last year’s winner, Ian Paterson with Bruce Harper, but already out of the fray was the Honda Civic of Gary MacLeod. A driveshaft had broken at Junction 3 on the first stage. Nearly joining him was Kenneth McRae. Having found more power in the Peugeot 309 since his last event (the timing was well out!) he got a bit carried away and carried too much speed over the first yump – only to find that the road went right instead of going straight on. He made it, but only just. It was Hardie again in the second test (7m 00s), but by only 2 seconds from young Mark (7m 02s) and Paterson on the totally wrong tyres (7m 13s). Having set an equal fourth fastest time (6m 01s) in the first stage along with Jim Sharp, Richard Dickson’s hopes took a dive in here when the Subaru punctured a front tyre half way through and he dropped 50 seconds to the leaders. That left him coming from behind for the rest of the day. Yet another car was stranded mid stage, the Peugeot 106 of Allan Little: “We ran out of petrol,” explained a puzzled Allan, “the gauge was still showing quarter full – damn French electrics!” Greg McKnight limped out with a puncture looking quite disconsolate: “That was one of my good tyres!” Alan Hughes also limped into service with the MkI looking a wee bit sorry for itself. He had hit a banking and it had pulled a link bar out of the rear suspension. Still, that was nothing that a welding torch couldn’t fix. Also limping were Allan Brodie and Cameron Fairbairn: “We hit a compression pretty hard after a yump in there,” said Allan, “and it winded the two of us badly!” Phil Jobson’s hopes of a decent run were dashed in the second stage too. He had already spun and stalled in the first test but got two rear punctures in the second, so he had to stop and change – and he only had one spare! The threatening rain passed over the hills north of Dundrennan, but that didn’t stop Ian Paterson getting the red-hot spoon out to cut some extra grooves in his tyres, ready for the next loop of two stages. It was Hardie again though (5m 39s) from a tying McCulloch and Paterson both on 5m 33s and then Ian got his nose in front on the fourth test (6m 45s) ahead of David (6m 46s) and Mark (6m 51s). Duncan Wardrop’s rally came to an end in here when the Subaru’s centre diff failed and Paul Swift struck trouble when he punctured a rear tyre, and he ruined his chances of a result when he had to stop and change it. Chris McCallum retired the Peugeot 205 as well when the brake master cylinder failed and Michael Hunter’s Lada burst a seal on a rear shock absorber and it lost all the fluid but the car was still going and Jim McDowall was spotted under the bonnet fitting a new alternator bracket. It hadn’t cost him any time, but he was more concerned about the performance of number one son, Jamie, driving his first rally in the Focus. He needn’t have worried, the boy was doing good, taking time out of the ol’ man on these two tests! Then Matthew Kesson departed the ranks when the electrics in the Nova failed and Keiron O’Kane’s Opel Ascona started playing up. It drove up the hill to join the queue for the start of Stage 5, but then when Keiron went to start it up again, the pesky thing wouldn’t fire up. It was either electrics or fuel, but could they find the cause? Nope. Home James! All fired up as well was Paterson, but it turned sour halfway through the fifth test. On the fast approach to a tight downhill hairpin-ish left hander, Ian went in too hot and drifted too wide on the exit. Unfortunately, there was a military road sign on the outside of the bend and the Subaru struck it. But as the sign bent over it lifted the concrete base out of the ground and with it the car. Effectively beached! There was little damage but the “ba’ was up on the slates” as they. Hardie was quickest again (5m 21s) from McCulloch (5m 24s) with Dickson third quickest (5m 34s) from Sharp (5m 39s). And getting to grips rather too quickly for some folks’ liking was McCulloch Jnr, fastest through the sixth test (6m 37s) from Hardie (6m 42s). Now, it’s not that I would ever suspect McCulloch Snr (co-driving for David Hardie), but I can’t help wondering if he had a ‘wee word’ with Jnr about driving so bluidy quickly! That left two stages to go and David had 14 seconds in hand over Mark. By this time, Mark’s worn tyres had about as much grip as a greasy mechanic on an oily dipstick, so common sense prevailed. Hardie was quickest over the final two (5m 18s and 6m 32s) from Jim Sharp (5m 32s and 6m 44s) from the boy (5m 36s and 6m 46s), so the job was done. Hardie had the win from McCulloch and Sharp with Dickson fighting back into fourth place. Behind them, things were not quite so clear. With two stages to go Steve Retchless was holding fifth from Barry Lindsay and Lee Hastings. Lee had closed right up on Barry after Barry spun on the sixth test so they started the final loop on identical times, and having failed to finish the last two Solways, Lee had the bit between his teeth this weekend. He was quicker than both Barry and Steve over the last two tests with Steve just failing to hold him off as his own chunkies were nearly wrecked by this time. First time out in his newly acquired GrpN Mitsubishi Lancer EVO7, Steve Hogg started cautiously, but during the afternoon runs was setting top six times and he finished 8th. Greg McKnight was ninth in the Corsa but was having to consistently pump up the front tyres after each run as they were going soft and Chris Anderson was tenth after a troublefree run on the ranges. Lying eleventh after six stages, event sponsor, Richard Stewart was looking for a top ten finish, but the turbo blew on the final stage and Bob Adamson took the position in his awfy smart MkII. Just behind him was Iain Haining in the Nova from Allan Brodie who was hampered over the closing stages by a clutch that was on its last legs. He was just managing to get gears without crunching, but it’ll need replacing before the next event. Greg McKnight was the Class 1 winner now that he’s got a new distributor for the Suzuki engine (about as rare as hen’s teeth these days apparently) in his Nova holding off Stephen and Darren Thompson in another Nova who had lost the use of second gear from the second stage. They also managed to clout the bridge parapet on the final stage, with Stephen claiming: “It just locked up when I went from third to first gear”. Barry Lindsay won Class 2 from Iain Haining and Allan Brodie with Donald Peacock fourth and breaking an engine mounting in the last stage. Stuart Bannatyne was fifth after a wee off on the fourth test and Jim McDowall was sixth in the Avenger. Steve Retchless won the top 2WD award as well as Class 3. Anderson was second from Adamson with Kenny Moore in his exotic looking Avenger fourth. But Kenny considers this ’work in progress’, the 2 litre unit has too much power and the car has too much grip and it pulled the bushes out of the rear suspension. Bill Lymburn was fifth in class from Fergus Gray who was running out of suspension units by close of play. Kevin Gemmell was seventh, Jamie McDowall eighth and Drew Barker ninth after the throttle jammed on Stage 6 but he’ll also need a new fan as it was knocking lumps off itself on the new exhaust manifold! Results: Class Winners: **** Full Results: www.scotresults.co.uk |