Rally - Kielder tales

Ruary MacLeod turned up at the Pirelli Rally finish and showed John MacCrone his in-car video clip from his accident early on Saturday morning. He nearly got away with it. Towards the end of the first stage, there was a downhill right over crest into fast left hander and Ruary got a bit of a tank slapper on: "I caught the first slide," said Ruary, "but I knew it was going to dig in and whip me across the road on the other side. That was the point I wondered whether I should floor it to pull it out or try and catch the slide again." but then the rear o/s wheel just caught the verge,m dug in and flipped the Fiesta.

"It's not too bad," said Ruary, "it's mostly plastic bits that took the brunt. The car will be ready for the Jim Clark."

John MacCrone is looking forward to the Jim Clark too. Referring to the Pirelli: "That was good, getting miles in the car and getting a feel for the pace of the others." As for the puncture: "I took exactly the same line I took on the first run through that stage," he said, "but a previous car had pulled a stone out and that was what caused the puncture. 7 other cars hit the same stone too. The mistake I made was thinking I could drive out on it."

He also let slip: "The car broke the front strut after the puncture and then on the last stage of the afternoon it broke a rear strut. That made his fightback from 13th to 5th all the more impressive.