Charles
Samson was an interested spectator at Saturday’s Scottish Rally. However, the
1975 and 1977 Scottish Rally Champion was a little dismayed at the way rallying
is going these days.
Charles
and his brother Alec contested the 1975 Scottish Rally in their Mk1 Ford Escort.
They finished just outside the top ten in 11th place that year, but
that was only because they tipped the car backwards over a banking in Whiteash
Forest. “We lost only two minutes,” recalled Charles, “but we weren’t the only
ones. The Flying Finish caught out a few crews on that last corner, so we were
in good company!”
But
here’s the thing. On Saturday, the Scottish Championship event winner, Euan
Thorburn, spent less than 36 minutes driving competitively over 5 Special
Stages. Way back in 1975, the winner took 4 hours 1 minute and 56 seconds to
drive over 44 Special Stages. In fact, the Scottish Rally that year had been
reduced to ‘only’ 3 days because of political considerations and the state of
the economy – some things never change, eh?
So
it was with a sense of loss that Charles reflected on the glory of Scottish
rallying, but who was the man who won the rally outright that year? It was none other than Roger Albert Clark in
the bright red Cossack Escort taking his third successive international victory
in a MkII and winning the Scottish for the sixth time in 12 years.
And
by the way, Charles omitted to tell me just how far behind Roger he was, but
I was there. The difference was nearly 20 minutes, but then Roger had a ‘works’ car and Charles
and Alec’s machine was built by one Willie Greig Esq.
