05 March: News Roundup

5 of Clubs Championship

The 5 of Clubs Rally Championship officially gets underway this weekend with a Test Day and Registration session at the Forrest Estate in Ayrshire on Sunday, full details from Andy Nichol.

For those not able to attend, Regulations and Registration Forms are now available from Andy Nichol at: alnicho@aol.com

There are 7 rounds in the series starting with the Charterhall Stages later this month, and they are:

March 30, Charterhall Stages
May 4, Pirelli Trophy Rally
July 14, Greystoke Stages
August 10/11, Solway Coast
September, 7 Merrick Rally
October 20, Kames Rally
October 27, Galloway Hills

Now, the eagle eyed amongst you will have noticed that the Solway Coast is down as a two day event. The main event will be on the Saturday but the Sunday event will be for the 14-17 year old Juniors in their 1 litre cars only.

Last year the organisers received special dispensation from the MSA to run ‘Route Notes’ for the Juniors and this trial went very well, so the plan is to do so again this year, while giving the youngsters their own event. A new stretch of road has allowed the whole route to be contained on private land so there are no public road links.

**

New date for Tyneside Stages Rally

It looks as though the date of the Tyneside Stages at Otterburn will be the 11th of August this year, but be aware that the date could yet change again. With British troops being called back from Germany, there could be bigger demands placed on all MOD property and this could impact on those events which rely on the ranges for mileage.

**

ALASTAIR FINDLAY

At EACC’s 50th anniversary ‘do’ last Saturday night I heard that Alastair Findlay had passed away recently. He had retired to America over three years ago, but returned ‘home’ early last year after taking ill.

Originally from Auchinleck and later Mauchline, Alastair was pretty active in the late 60s and early 70s and finished seventh overall in the 1972 Shell Scottish Rally Championship, the year that Drew Gallacher won his first Scottish title, and finished third overall in the 1973 series behind champion Arthur Jasper and runner-up Donald Heggie.

He contested the 1971 Monte Carlo Rally but was wrongly excluded and was given a free entry for the 1972 event. This didn’t run because of the fuel crisis and when he tried to use his free entry on the 1973 event, the organisers refused to allow it and he had to pay up! That’s the French for you, eh?

It’s worth noting that 278 cars started the 1973 event and only 44 finished, but the Ford Escort RS of Alastair and co-driver Ian Muir were not amongst them!

More recently, Alastair had been very supportive of Douglas Anderson’s successful efforts to re-introduce a Glasgow start for the Monte Carlo Historic Rally.

**