May 2022 News
GRASS AUTOTEST – 22ND MAY
Eighteen entries for Solway Car Club’s first Grass Autotest of the year, with the kind permission of the Graham family at Irelandton Farm near Twynholm on Sunday. With a wet start making things rather tricky for the competitors to find the best lines, but were soon getting the hang of things with more grip as runs progressed. After 6 runs, just 1.68 seconds separated the Top 3 finishers, with Rab Henderson taking the Overall win, closely followed by Richard Dickson and Thomas McCarney.
The full Event Report can be read here.
MEMBERS IN ACTION
Border Counties Rally (14th May): Making another trip north from Wales, Jamie Edwards was back in Scotland to contest the Jedburgh-based BTRDA round with Bob Adamson. The stages were in “better then excellent” condition, and the crew had been lying as far up as 10th in their Ford Fiesta Rally2, before dropping to 15th on the final stage when the car decided to cut out and they had to drive out in road mode. Back on the stages for the first time since last year’s Scottish, Donald Peacock wheeled the family Peugeot 205 out and finished 52nd and 4th in class with Keith Riddick alongside; they had a “great day”, but the little Peugeot struggled on some of the hills, giving Donald plenty of time to eye up specialist Forestry Machinery!
Albar Kames Trophy (15th May): Niall Cowan Jnr was driving the MG3 in competitive action for the first time, and he and Owen Paterson finished 9th overall and 1st in class after 15 stages round the East Ayrshire tarmac circuit. Roscoe West, co-driving for Cameron Williamson in a Subaru Impreza, finished just one place higher in 8th overall, and Alan Edwards who was co-driving for Mark Runciman in the BMW Compact was 12th.
Rally de Portugal (19th-22nd May): Competing this time in a Hyundai i20 N Rally2, Elliott Edmondson & Oliver Solberg retired from 4th in WRC2 on Saturday due to a broken steering arm – blamed on the exceptionally rough roads – but the pair re-joined on Sunday for experience, and took fastest class times on two of the five stages.
Rallye d’Antibes – Côte d’Azur (21st-22nd May): the long journey to the south of France for Rory Young & Allan Cathers in their Ford Fiesta Rally2 was rewarded with a 17th out of the 82 finishers after 130miles of twisty stages, amongst a field of fast French tarmac aces.
Jim Clark National Rally (27th-28th May): The National event (66 miles) started on Friday night, and after 2 runs over the famous Abbey St Bathans stage Joe McKeand & Calum MacPherson were lying in a great 14th overall in the Subaru Impreza, only dropping a few places to finish 17th by the end of Saturday’s eight stages. The stunning pair of green Peugeot 208 Rally4 cars of the Stewart Family were also out in action. Peter Stewart, this time joined by veteran Dave Robson, finished 24th and survived a last-stage time loss to keep hold of the class win. Father Richard Stewart & Carin Tait-Logan finished 53rd and 3rd in class.
Jim Clark Reivers Rally (29th May): Sunday’s Reivers rally (44 miles) and plenty of Solway members were competing. It was a great day for Mark McCulloch & Michael Hendry, debuting their new Proton Satria Evo on tarmac for the first time, and finishing 6th overall and 3rd in the Scottish Rally Championship.
Jock Armstrong & Cammy Fair suffered a loss of brakes on their Subaru Impreza on approach to a chicane in SS1, negotiating it with the reactions of a cat. Clutch problems later on in the day meant the finished down in 11th. Fresh from their trip to France last weekend, Rory Young & Allan Cathers were lying in a fantastic 3rd overall, only 7seconds off the event lead after the first loop. An uncharacteristic slip up on SS5 saw them caught out on some gravel, and their Ford Fiesta Rally2 beached but undamaged.
Debuting their immaculate Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9 on tarmac, Angus Lawrie & Paul Gribben finished a fine 13th overall. Angus would also be pleased to see the other Evo 9 lovingly prepared in his Angus Lawrie Motorsport stable, reaching the finish on both events with no mechanical issues. Encouraged by their pace on the National rally, Joe McKeand & Calum MacPherson had even found time on a Saturday road section to phone the CLO to sort them a re-seed for Sunday! This put them in a better starting position than their 48 seed, and they cruised round to finish 21st with no dramas. A good weekend all round in the Subaru Impreza.
Team Paterson were out in force in the Borders. Ian Paterson started where he finished, in 27th position, with Michael Cruickshank stepping into the co-driver’s seat of the Subaru Impreza temporarily. They seemed to have a good day, and Ian was happy at the finish of the event in Duns. Stuart Paterson and his daughter Alice Paterson, were hampered a bit by a poor seeding in their Subaru Impreza, and caught a lot of cars on their way to finishing 39th. Finally, Owen Paterson did a fine job of reading Notes for the first time, finishing 53rd and 2nd in class with Stephen Hunter in his Honda Civic Type-R.
The Stewarts were back out for another day of action, with Peter Stewart & Dave Robson taking another class win and 28th overall, and Richard Stewart taking 3rd in class again, this time co-driven by Mark Roberts while Carin Tait-Logan today supervised her own Dad, Ginge!
After mechanical problems on the first two rounds, the MG ZR of Keith Riddick & Mairi Riddick finally made it to the end of a rally. DHL nearly prevented them from making the start line due to losing their Pistons, and brake problems hampered them for the morning loop (fixed in Service when The Captain asked and why you are using those?), but they got round to finish 49th and 3rd in class. 4th in the class went to Robert Proudlock, who brought the little Open Adam R2 home in 58th overall on his first closed road rally, minus a rear bumper (for weight-saving?), guided this time by Lewis MacDougall. It was an enjoyable weekend all round for Jan Budge & Bruce Lindsay, who finished 66th in their Subaru Impreza, on what was Jan’s first full tarmac rally!
The Father and Son duo of Willie Nelson & Craig Nelson were back out for the first time since last year’s Mach 1 Stages, when another competitor took a short cut through some bales and ploughed straight into their immaculate Ford Escort Mk II <insert angry face> leading to instant retirement. No such dramas this weekend, and the smile on Willie’s face at the finish in Duns could probably have been seen from home in Dumfries! It was a 2nd in Class for the other father & son crew of Bryan Gourlay & Scott Gourlay in their Peugeot 205, on what was their first closed road event. Scott will now take over the driving on next month’s Argyll.
There were some disappointments as well, with Drew Sturrock and Hugh Brunton succumbing to a small fire in their Ford Fiesta R5 on SS3 while lying 13th, and our third father and son duo of Murray Grierson & Mark Grierson, on their first outing since Otterburn in 2019, retiring their new Ford Fiesta R5 with mechanical problems early on.
First Citizens King of the Hill (29th May): and finally, in the Caribbean, Andy Scott finished 8th fastest on the warm up sprint event for next weekend’s Sol Rally Barbados in his Ford Fiesta S2000 Turbo, finishing the course with his fastest time of 2m24s88 from the 3rd of the four runs.
Well done, everyone!
📸 Alan Scott Photography: Mark McCulloch & Michael Hendry on Jim Clark Reivers Rally.
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COMING EVENTS IN JUNE
SCC Grass Autotest – 5th June
Committee Meeting – 7th June
Kielder Forest Rally – 18th June
Argyll Rally – 24th/25th June
SCC Grass Autotest – 26th June