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Jaggy Bunnet's Rally Report - Tuesday 11 October 2011 The RAC MSA National Rally of Scotland, 8/9 October Inglis Jingles but no Glory for McClory Alistair and Colin Inglis won the National Rally of Scotland, but for a long time on Sunday afternoon it looked as though John McClory and David Hood were going to take their first ever rally victory. It would have been a very emotional victory for an extremely popular duo who epitomise what this sport is all about – make sure you give more than you take out. But Lady Luck is a fickle old bag at times, and it must have been that time of the month on Sunday evening at Scone Palace when she took her spite out on the rally leaders. Having exited the final stage in the darkness, there was a lot of people around and confusion afoot as the Brick & Steel Subaru approached the Final Control. Somehow they missed it, but David spotted the mistake quickly and told John to turn it round. Then they got stuck in spectator traffic! By the time they got back to the Control they were late. However, the Marshals gave them the time they wanted and everyone was happy, including Alistair and Colin who told John and David that they had won the rally fair and square and had no problem with them getting the time they wanted. All the way into the finish John and David were thinking they had won their first ever rally and even the first set of signed Provisional Results confirmed that. Then came the bombshell. A phone call from the CofC told him they had a time penalty and were now second. No protest had been raised or query made, yet from somewhere, the penalty was added to John and David’s time. Even then, the length of the penalty differed from what David had thought it might be at its worst. The duo thought of raising a protest then immediately dismissed it. Typical. They didn’t want to disrupt proceedings any further. Of more concern to John and David is that they now have the rally winners’ awards presented at the Scone Palace finish and will need to swap them over with Alistair and Colin! Back to the Rally But all that was to come, this year’s National Rally was more about survival than speed, a sort of Scottish Safari in the monsoon season if you will. Weather conditions were horrible on Saturday night and yet Sunday actually had some sunshine. As for the stages. If they were bad on the previous week’s McRae Rally, they were much worse this weekend. There had been no let up in the rain during the week so there was little chance of the FC doing any road repair work. And yet the odd thing was, there were few complaints from the International crews at the front, all the dis-satisfaction came from those running behind. Of the 28 crews who started, only 10 survived. It was Donnie MacDonald who set the pace (11m 20.8s), the Lancer driver fastest over the opening test at Craigvinean on Saturday night from Reay MacKay (11m 35.2s) and John McClory (11m 38.6s). In a surprising fourth quickest place was the LPG powered Renault Clio of Alistair Hutchinson (11m 45.7s). Winner of this event the first year it was run, Barry Groundwater was fifth quickest ((11m 56.5s) but by only a second from Wayne Sisson (11m 57.9s) and Fraser Louden (11m 57.2s). A minute off the pace was the Metro 6R4 of Alastair McSkimming: “The electric screen failed,” said Alastair, “and we couldn’t see a thing, Each time we tried to wipe it by hand it was just dripping water. It was dangerous to continue, not just because we couldn’t see, but because we might have got in the way of those running behind us.” On that basis, Alastair gave Errochty a body swerve and headed to service. Another looking for service was young Steven Smith. A shock absorber had broken in the Peugeot 206 and he had to be rescued at the stage finish by his crew. It wasn’t just the rain that was causing trouble, Craigvinean was shrouded in dense mist with a number of drivers claiming that visibility was down to 10 feet. Not 10 yards, just 10 feet. On that basis full beam was useless, dipped just as bad and fog lights no damn use at all. Errochty was next and competitors had to drive through thick mist before hitting clear air over the top and then plunging back through thick mist on the other side of the mountain. This was scary stuff and it was Wayne Sisson who was bravest (12m 09.4s), taking time out of Barry Groundwater (12m 42.3s) and John McClory (12m 53.9s). in slightly better conditions Alistair Inglis was fourth quickest (13m 06.9s) from MacDonald (13m 17.3s) but the term ‘better conditions’ is a bit misleading! Taking no further interest in proceedings was Reay MacKay. Having fitted a brand new wiring loom, last year’s winner was pretty confident that he had got to the bottom of the Subaru’s problems. Not so. The gearbox failed in Errochty and he was out. Whether it was mechanical or electrical will have to wait till the crew and car dry out! There was no final run through Drummond Hill that night as conditions had deteriorated further. Jim McRae was sent through in the Course Car and advised against its use on the grounds of ruts, softness, slipperiness and of course those steep drops which were hidden in the dense mist and would have been quite dangerous given the lack of grip and vision. The relieved survivors headed for a hot meal and bed. Sunshine greeted crews on Sunday morning and it stayed mostly dry during the day although the stages were still sodden and puddled. But for Jim Carty, the rally was short-lived. He got no further than 50 yards from the rally re-start. “A friend had delivered two cans of Sunoco race fuel before the rally,” said Jim, “and we filled the car – but it was diesel in the cans! That explains why we were so slow last night. We had half a can of race fuel already in the car, but topped it up with diesel, so at least it was running. Then this morning we topped it up again!” Michael Robertson failed to make the re-start too after trouble with the Subaru’s gearbox the previous night and no spare for the Sunday. Sisson was fastest (5m 48.0s) through the first stage of the day at Carron, last used on the ’97 Valentine, from McClory (5m 54.9s) and Alistair Inglis (6m 03.0s). Groundwater was next (6m 05.0s) from Neil Coalter (6m 07.1s) with MacDonald in trouble (7m 02.6s). “I came out of Carron thinking I was losing boost, but in the next test at Loch Chon, it turned out the turbo had worked loose, so I had no boost at all.” There was worse to come. He banged a rock and bent a steering arm. Game over. Alistair Inglis hit the front in Long Chon 1 (7m 35.7s) from Sisson (7m 41.3s) who had barely more than a second on Groundwater (7m 42.8s). David Newall was on the pace too (7m 457.6s) from McClory (7m 52.6s) and Coalter (7m 57.8s) but now Gordon Murray was in trouble: “The car keeps cutting out and stopping. It was getting quite dangerous because it’s so quick in there and there’s not much room to pull over to let other cars through.” The problem was found at service where the ECU which controls the fuel pump was overheating and cutting out the pump. And with no spare, they were going no further. Sisson was fastest (18m 34.0s) on the long test at High Corrie 1, but by barely a second from McClory (18m 34.9s) with an impressive Inglis only 3 seconds adrift ((18m 37.1s). Newall was next on (19m 05.6s) from Groundwater (19m 09.4s) as they headed to Aberfoyle service. Alex Pirie retired here. After five stages his Corsa’s score was three driveshafts and a diff! Gordon Smith was in similar trouble with the Escort Cosworth. After an all nighter fixing the propshaft, a rock shattered a wheel leaving the wheel centre still attached to the hub but with no rim and no tyre! Subsequent damage to the brake disc and calliper caused some frenetic work at service and they got an unavoidable penalty booking out slightly late. However, they were still in the rally, unlike some. Young Graeme Smith had damaged the rear suspension of the Honda. The pressed steel bottom arms no match for Scottish rocks! Neil Coalter was out too. The Lancer’s suspension had taken a beating the night before and gave up the ghost on Sunday morning. “There’s just too much damage underneath,” said Neil, “so we’re pulling out now before we break something and have an accident.” It also allowed him to devote more time to the Inglis’ car which he runs for Alistair and was now in the hunt for victory. Sisson was fastest again (7m 39.4s) from McClory (7m 40.5s) in Loch Chon 2 with Newall (7m 46.0s) ahead of Inglis (7m 47.7s) but no sign of Groundwater. The Mitsubishi had succumbed to the water and aquaplaned off the road and into a ditch. Aquaplaning on a forest road? You’re joking right? Apparently not. Water was lying in the ruts and with the surface too loose and rubbly to drive on outside the ruts, drivers were forced to drive in the ruts – hence the aquaplaning. As I said, conditions were terrible. The final forest stage of the day featured a return to Stage 13, High Corrie 2. And with victory tantalisingly in sight, Wayne Sisson just needed a clean run. It must have been at this point in the day that Lady Luck awoke from her slumbers to take her spite out on rallyists. Wayne punctured a tyre and lost over 3 minutes. Victory gone. The hub was damaged too, and he was going no further. McClory was the only driver under 19 minutes for the stage (18m 53.1s) from Inglis (19m 05.6s), Newall (19m 23.4s) and Nigel Feeney first time out in an N11 on 19m 36.4s. Lying just outside the top ten at this point was young Gary MacLeod, but when the wheel studs sheared on the Honda, he was left stranded mid-forest in the Japanese equivalent of Del Boy’s Reliant Robin. And now we come to the contentious bit. The final two ‘spectator specials’ at Scone Palace. After a lot of ’hingin’aboot’ the Nationals got into the test behind the Internationals and Alistair Inglis managed to take 12 seconds out of John McClory on each of the two 2.84 km (1.76 mls) runs round the Palace and race course. Newall and Louden set suspiciously similar stage times while Feeney was suspiciously 14 and 10 seconds off Newall’s times. Or maybe I've just been reading too many Dan Brown novels with conspiracy theories and reading too much into the stage times! Even with those additional 24 seconds McClory and Hood were still in the rally lead and greeted as winners’ on the Finish Ramp before Lady Luck ‘pit the ba’ up on the slates again!’ Top two wheel drive car was the Fiesta of Max Utting in seventh place with Alistair Hutchinson’s LPG powered Renault Clio ninth and the Nissan Micra of Lewis Roper tenth despite a broken back axle but still plugging away for a finish. And just as everyone was about to celebrate one of the most popular rally winning results in the sport, came the bombshell. It appeared that McClory and Hood had booked into the final Time Control 1m 40s late and the resultant penalty dropped them behind the Inglis twins. McClory was disconsolate and Inglis subdued, but the penalty stood, and so did the result. Final Results: **** ** |