----- SiteNav ----- |
Grant Construction Knockhill Stages Rally, Sunday 8th January Glendinning’s Firsts Michael Glendinning and Paul Hughes scored a maiden victory first time out in their ex Cronin/Evans TegSport Impreza and also provided DMack Tyres with a debut victory for their latest WRC spec. tyres which Glendinning was trying out on this Grant Construction Stages Rally at Knockhill Race Circuit. But the real stars of the show were Mark McCulloch and Mairi Riddick in the Proton Satria. On only his second run out in the car, he finished runner up to Michael setting some top three fastest times along the way! As ever, Knockhill’s weather was unpredictable and yet on the way to the circuit on Sunday morning, the shy was virtually clear with the rising red sun tinge-ing the clouds with gold and it was mild enough to leave the anorak in the car. And then the mist came down, and then it rained, and then it turned bitterly cold. Welcome to a New Year in Scotland. “I’ve never been nervous in a rally car before,” said Michael, “but sitting at the start of the first stage in a brand new car with a new helmet and HANs device for the first time and looking at all these switches, I was shittin’ meself!” As it was, Doug Brydon set the pace on the first two tests to take an early lead, but on the final bend of the second stage he broke a rear driveshaft. It didn’t cost much time and he got back into service. A new driveshaft was fitted and he reversed out to head for Stage 3: “It started making a terrible noise,” said Doug, “it turns out it was the wrong shaft and the splines didn’t match!” End of rally. That meant Glendinning was now leading the rally with Jim Sharp re-united with his own Subaru after a run-out in a WRC car on the Galloway Hills in second place, but already coming under pressure from McCulloch. Conditions didn’t improve much over the next two stages with the ‘forest stage’ at the east end of the circuit covered in a layer of slittery mud which the storms had washed across the tarmac, and most folk lost time with spins or offs, including Jim Sharp who dropped 20 seconds on the third test. That put last year’s winner John Rintoul into third, behind McCulloch, making up time after a big four-wheel off on the first stage of the day. Right on his tail was Dale Robertson: “I was off the pace o the first two stages,” said Dale, “and we found that the tyres were different profiles so they were winding up the diffs. Once we had a better matched set of tyres, times improved.” In fifth place after four stages was Ian Forgan and the surprise here was that he was setting such good times despite the fact that the Escort was spending most of the time going sideyways. Another driver who was impressive was Graeme Schoneville. Had he not been off on the grass on the first test he would have been up there too. First time out in a 4WD car, the Honda pilot was unfazed by the power and impressive on the track. John Rintoul was within half a minute of Glendinning at the start of Stage 5, but a throttle sensor wire broke in the Lancer and he was stranded mid-stage. Another top seed out, and Dale Robertson duly followed on the next test when the engine “shit itself” which is apparently a technical term for a serious engine malfunction! With Glendinning now looking more secure in the rally lead, McCulloch set one fastest time and another second and third fastest time over the final four stages keeping the pressure on the leader but if his times were impressive so were the times of Gareth White and Bruce Hay. The wee Citroen was scrabbling round the track like a demented Jack Russell chasing a rat taking time out of Forgan and Sharp to move into third place. In fifth place after the first two stages was the elderly Nova of Bruce Hay and as conditios improved (ever so slightly) during the course of the day, he slipped back into the clutches of the four wheel drive brigade but still finished a seriously impressive sixth overall behind Forgan. Ross Hunter was seventh in his Peugeot 205 ahead of Chris Collie who was having a run out in Brian Watson’s Lancer: “It’s basically a standard EVO5 with some bits and a cage in it,” said Chris, “but my Subaru’s not ready and I’ve never driven on wet, slippery tar before so this was as worthwhile exercise.” Neil Thomson was ninth in his Corsa with Wattie Warwick having a whale of a time in the MkII: “I only did a couple of events last year and had problems,” said Wattie, “so this was fun. It’s got a lot less grip than the old 4x4 Cossie but I enjoyed it.” That was apparent, he was grinning all day – or was that grimacing in the cold? Whatever, the 32 starters from the 42 car entry enjoyed themselves, but Michael Glendinning had an urgent call to make after the rally: “I promised Dick (Cormack) I would give him a bell after the rally to tell him how the tyres had fared.” Apparently these were the new WRC regulation tyres which DMack was taking out to Monte Carlo. No difference really, Monte Carlo sits on a hill with tarmac roads winding around it – just like Knockhill. Results: **** |