Rally - Turnbull Trophy

There should be a law against catering vans in service areas cooking sausages and bacon first thing in the early morning, when one's personal provisions consist of fresh fruit, a salad and two chicken wraps! But already, the sun is well up at the Turnbull Trophy at Albemarle in the north east of England for this latest round of the BLUE Scottish Tarmack Championship.

Fears of Ian Forgan not making it proved unfounded. He's here, but with a Fiesta. He actually had the Ka up and running by Friday night, and that's less than two weeks since that end over end at Crail, but there was a problem with the throttle sensor. "It was running fine but all I was getting was full throttle, even when it was idling," explained Forgy, "so I thought it was just a wiring problem and would sort it out on Saturday morning. At 11 o'clock on Saturday morning I phoned Jim Rintoul - he had offered me the Fiesta after Crail!"

Naturally,' young' Rintoul hadn't touched the car, not even washed it, so Forgy picked it up, put his own wheels and tyres on it and gave it a checkover before bringing it down to Albemarle. Fingers crossed.

Kieran O'Kane has been busy since Crail too. "I bought a new fuel tank with baffles in it before Crail." he said, "I found out at Crail it had NO baffles. It was misfiring on every bleedin' corner!" With little time before today's event, he fitted a swirl pot and an extra fuel pump in the boot - and it's still misfiring. "We found a leak behind the engine last night, so we think it's drawing air." In other words, the bonnet is up again this morning.

Kenneth McRae is here with the Peugeot. "It was the clutch plate which broke at Crail," he said, "the rivets holding the clutch plate itself had come loose and everything was rattling around." So that's been fixed but more important 'Uncle Sam' is here and taking control. Mentor Sam Orr has his clipboard and his latest check list is already a page long and methinks he'll need more pages.

Alistair Inglis is wheezing like an old side valve tar boiler this morning after cycling round Albemarle, he's never been here before. "It's hay fever," he said, "all this cut grass everywhere. My eyes are streaming and my throat is raw." He also promised: "No red mist today, I'm here for a puckle of points."