Venturing into the unknown …. Missing out on Kames this
weekend to head south on Sunday 17th into fresh territory for my first ‘international’
sales expedition. An odd choice? Perhaps not. Over the years the Scottish Rally
Championship has seen a regular influx of rally competitors from Cumbria and
Northumbria, Lancashire and Yorkshire, although it wasn’t till 2002 that an
Englishman won the Scottish national title for the first time. That was Barry
Johnson, and he did it again in 2005. England had to wait nearly 20 years more
for another cross border silverware raider when David Henderson won the
Scottish crown in 2023.So what has been the big attraction? It’s not just the
proximity of the stages for north of England folks, it has to be the competition
and I like to think, the banter. Admittedly it gets a bit cruel at times but
the Scots only insult their friends – insulting enemies just invites more
trouble!
The other big attraction lies just off the west coast of
Scotland. 300 square miles of rock with roads winding up and over and round the
contours like steroid fed sinews. It has been said that the roads were ‘designed’
by an engineer with a wheelbarrow full of sand. Apparently the wheelbarrow had
a wee hole in it and the engineer’s job was to push the barrow along the terrain
he thought best suited to build roads while the navvies behind him would follow
the trail of trickled sand.
That worked fine till one stormy night in the Mish Nish where
the engineer sought to fortify himself with the ‘water of life’ before braving
the elements and the nightmarish fear of banshees and whigmaleeries and heading
home to Dervaig. The next morning the road building squad set about their task following
the route with unquestionable faith in their engineer. The result? The 6.3 miles
of tortuous tarmac known colloquially as ‘The Lochs’. And given the nature of
the rest of the island’s roads, that wasn’t the only night the engineer got stocious!
On that basis I’ll also have copies of the ‘Murmurs on Mull’
book which takes up the Mull story from Brian Molyneux’s authoritative insight (sadly
now out of print) on the origins and history of the Mull Rally from 1969 to
1994 with the MoM book covering the period 1993 to 2010 although in a somewhat
less serious and more frivolous style to the master’s work.
As for the Scottish Rally Championship books they list the
top ten drivers and co-drivers and class winners on each round of the series
and are illustrated with many previously unpublished and unseen photographs,
including the early days of a future world champion. Anyway, there will be
sample books to flick through if interested.
So if you’re not going to Kames a day out at Penrith on
Sunday would be most enjoyable as Wigton Motor Club’s ‘Cumbria Classic and Motorsport
Show’ promises something for everyone from the old-time tinkerer and polisher to
the sporting oil-stained enthusiast, and with over 800 cars entered it ranks as
one of the biggest such shows in England.
The venue is the Dalemain Estate just to the west of Penrith
off the M6 but given the expected popularity of the show, visitors are recommended
to arrive via the A592 from the Ullswater side as the queues may well build up
at the Rheged roundabout. Post code CA11 0HB. Just be careful.
