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Co-ordinator's Tuppence Worth on The Granite |
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The turnout for the Granite was down by 4 crews due to different reasons - Davey Goodfellow was lambing, James Fairbairns had a "sinking feeling", Douglas Gilbert has sold his car and the new owner could not make it and the real "sick note" - Jonathan Smith - appeared at service in plaster up to his knee. But everybody else was really upbeat as we gathered for the sunny start in the lovely setting beside the boating pond at the Duthie Park. We had a full set of 1.9s out and Euan, Doug and Ian were hungry for good finishes and points on the board. Euan had fixed his tankguard problems. And Ian Munro was confident that he had fixed his multiple problems from the Snowman - a loss in power and broken drive shafts. He took the car to a rolling road and had the engine setup checked - not a problem. However, after a bit of " farting about" the car went back on the road and would not rev worth a "s..t". That was when they discovered some problem with the bias pedal box which was slowly screwing the front brakes on as the brakes were used!!! Hence Ian's loss of power and they think the broken drive shaft. So the Munro camp were a bit more upbeat than before the Border Counties. Doug Brydon was just dying to get out there.
Alick Kerr and Tom Hynd did their usual professional job and retained their position at the top of the 1.9 table. Life is never fair and when somebody is up, somebody else has to be down!!. And on this occasion it turned out to be Doug Brydon and David O'Brien. They were going well and dodging seconds with Alick Kerr but it all went wrong on the last stage when the engine lost all its oil and blew up in a dramatic way - rod through the block. A real bummer. Ian Munro and Paul Beaton had no such problems and were happy to get back to Aberdeen and score some points, knowing that the car is now ready to attack the roads around Duns. Ian is much happier on tar.
The only person who looked as if he was going to give Ryan a chase was Jamie Stewart but it all went wrong for Jamie and Simon on stage 5 when they slid off the road down a big big bank and were stopped from a long roll by a tree. They were still doing about 40mph when the hit the tree - NSF. Both crew were ok but the car is finished. Second home in the 1.6s was Ross Chalmers. Another good clean run from our youngest driver as he continues to learn his craft. Ross was smiling at the start but the smile was even wider at the finish after a strong drive through the last stage. Blair Girvan and Hannah Cessford were next home after reporting that Blair has developed a slight fear of concrete forestry bridges after their inversion on the Snowman. But they came through pretty unscathed. Well nothing that a visit to Dingbro cannot fix. William Harley and Kris Horne came over the finish ramp minus front and rear spoiler showing that William had let his guard down a bit over the last stage. It had been their first experience of driving on tramac tryres and the 2 short blasts over stages 1 and 2 gave them a wee flavour of what to expect befor the Jim Clark. Mark McCulloch and Start Cant had a brilliant start over the 2 short tramac stages and went into stage 3 third 1.6 205 and only 3 seconds behind Jamie Stewart. 3-3-3 must be unlucky as they fell foul of the evil gear linkage disease on stage 3 and dropped over a minute. They never really got going after that. 6 seconds behind Mark was Johnnie Thorburn/Ewan Leeming. With another finish under his belt, this was a real success for Johnnie. He had a new gearlinkage for this event and could get all the gears for all the stages. The next step in the plan is to get Johnnie to develop his confidence in the car and get more committed to what ace co-driver Ewan Leeming is shouting at him. Ewan reported that his reading of the notes was interspersed with "Get off the f........... brakes!!!" Dave Retson and Michelle Falconer were next finishers after their traumas in the first stage. The fact that Dave persevered shows the true spirit required to get a result in rallying. They were trading seconds with fellow Invernesian Ross Chalmers for the rest of the day and collected enough points to keep them second top of the 1.6 class table. And what can we say about Duncan Campbell/Gary Robert. This was only there 3rd rally and they managed to cross the startline without any major drama - or so they thought. To recall, they had to reshell the car before the Snowman, and then rebuild the engine before the Border Counties. What else could go wrong. Well, a few corners into stage 3 and 3 big frights (I think that is what Duncan said) they realised that they had the wrong format of pace notes. It was too late by then to get a replacement set so the crew found that the safest thing was to drive the stages blind for the rest of the day. And to add insult to injury, they collected 2 minutes penalties by booking out of service early. But that must be their 3 bits of bad luck. And now for the black stuff around Duns. DIGB, Co-ordinator |
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Brick & Steel 205 Ecosse Challenge to the Rescue |
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Until you have sat in the Clerk of the Course's chair, you will never appreciate why we all start to look old at a young age. Gerry Potter was having his share of grief on Friday night - mainly due to a shortage of people. But at 10pm they had a real problem. The Opening Car had been rolled on the Press Day and plan B had an engine problem. The 0 car has to be a proper rally car with a "proper" driver (well one with a competition licence) Dilemna, dilemna - what to do? It just so happened that there was a wee get together of a few folk in the Press Office next door to talk about ideas for the 2008 Brick & Steel 205 Ecosse Challenge. Stella Boyles stuck her head round the door and asked "Anybody know where we can find a rally car and driver before 8am tomorrow!!" The guys looked at each other. In the meeting was Andrew Smith (of 1.6 205 fame) and James Stewart (who had just happened to have driven up to Aberdeen in the rebuilt ex Robbie Pearson 2006 Championship winning car to "settle it down" before it goes up for hire.) Eyes met. "Are you up for it?" "Yes" "Well let's do it" And so the 0 car was solved. James would "contribute" the car. Andrew would drive and Rowena Hay was dug out of her bed in Elgin and told to get through to Aberdeen for 8 the next morning.
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Welcome Aboard For 2007 |
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George Donaldson |
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Back in 1979, George Donaldson was a young guy just starting out in rallying. He learnt his craft at the wheel of a 1 litre Mini -a few years later he tackled the Swedish in an old Fiesta. And a lot of people in far fancier and powerful machinery were never able to understand where the speed came from. But George had an analytical brain and knew where the speed came from. I believe that he also has a "big pair of balls!!" Over the years he has passed his wisdom on to some of the biggest names in our sport and has left more than one so called superstar flinching when they tried to bullshit him. Your co-ordinator has known GD since he started rallying. Both went through the Dunfermline Car Club Development School of the 80s. That is where we learnt our "style". OK - GD could drive and your co-ordinator couldnt (well not to the same degree) Our paths crossed again at the 2006 Pirelli International Rally and GD asked to be kept in touch with the progress of the Brick & Steel 205 Ecosse Challenge. The end product is that he will be taking time out of his very very busy 2007 schedule (he flew in from the Swedish Rally for the Snowman and later the following week flew to Mexico for the next WRC round) to attend at least 4 rounds of the Championship in 2007. He will observe our competitors and give advice, encouragement and abuse (probably in equal proportions) with a view to helping people make it to the next grade. There are no promises of any fancy deals etc at the end but George being George, if someone takes his fancy then they will come out of it smiling. Hard work and straight talking (and plenty of it) are 2 of George's trademarks. It is a delight to have him on board and to spend time with him again. He was interviewed for a newspaper article a few years ago and that give a brilliant insight into his career. I have reproduced that article word for word. CLICK HERE |
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Read about our plans for the 1.9 class..... CLICK HERE |
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