Rally - Glendinning still leads

The weather is playing a role in the outcome of today’s Turnbull Trophy Stages at Albemarle with rally leader Michael Glendinning quicker in the wet in his Subaru while Peter Taylor is quicker in the dry with his Renault Clio.

The trouble is, there is no single answer because conditions are changing even while the stages are being run. Take Ross Fernie for instance, third after 2 stages, he’s dropped to sixth: “It’s all down to tyres,” said Ross, “I had intermediates on for the first two and that was the right choice, then switched to slicks for the next two and it rained!”

That has allowed Colin Gemmell to move ahead into fifth place and top Scot positions, despite having marked the flank and front corner (on the co-driver’s side) on the many bales and obstacles around here. But he’s more concerned about the course marker cones: “If they charge £10 per cone, then I’ll need to sell the car to pay for them,” he quipped.

Stuart Walker is just outside the top ten in 12th place with George Bryson 13^th, so a finish today will be good points-wise for any registered Scottish Tarmack Championship contenders – provided they finish. Another on the trailer is the Astra of Alan Cowan. “It broke a driveshaft,” said Alan, “we fixed it but the organisers took the Time Cards and we couldn’t get a run this afternoon.”

Riding shotgun for Alan was Shona Hale, Drew Barker’s regular co-driver, with Drew on the spanners for Alan this weekend. Commenting on her run last weekend with Drew in his Astra at Crail and Alan’s Astra this weekend, Shona said: “Same shit, different Astra!”

I couldn’t have put it better myself.

Leaders after SS4:

1 Michael Glendinning, Subaru, 47m 27s

2 Peter Taylor. Renault Clio, 47m 43s

3 Howard Chopping, Subaru, 48m 53s

4 Lyndon Barton, Escort, 48m 54s

5 Colin Gemmell, Subaru, 48m 57s

6 Ross Fernie, Subaru, 49m 10s

7 Pete Gibson, Mitsubishi, 49m 18s

8 Chris Anderson, Fiesta, 49m 35s

9 Barry Lindsay, Peugeot 106, 49m 48s

10 Ian Tiffany, Subaru, 50m 13s

P.S. and after a dry lunch break, the cars have gone out on SS5, and it’s started to rain.