Rally - The Aftermath

You''ll never gues who won the 'Spirit of the Rally' award at yesterday's rain-sodden Colin McRae Forest Stages Rally - unless you were there! There was universal acclaim and praise at the prizegiving later that evening in Aberfeldy when the winners were announced. It was the tractor drivers.

As conditions deteriorated during the day, more help was summoned and by mid-day there were six tractors helping cars, 4x4s, trucks and trailers plus the occasional stricken rally car to get out of the Service Area. What could have turned into a soggy, wet morass of a disaster was saved by willing helpers, good humour and Scottish tenacity.

Even the Polis were helpful.Things could have ground to a halt without their willing co-operation, and dare I say it, the odd turning of a blind eye now and again.

As for the stages, they were awash, and proceedings were further hampered by two accidents (needless to say, outwith the control of the organisers) during the morning which served to prolong proceedings even further.

In fact, conditions brought to mind the memory of a certain Ford Escort MkII way back in 1990 on the Chesterton Hackle Rally run through some of yesterday's same stages.On that day over 20 years ago, this wee Pinto engined, skinny-wheeled, quadricycle danced and shimmied its way through water-logged stages and storm-lashed forests to trounce a whole flock of four wheel drive machinery and more powerful 2WD cars.

Conditions were as bad then as they were yesterday, but at the wheel of that epic drive was a 22 year old by the name of Colin McRae.