Rally - Entertainers

After 2 stages (of 5 today), just 5 seconds covered the top four with Alister McRae squeezing out a 2 second advantage in the Proton over Aaron Newby’s Subaru. David Bogie was a further 2 seconds behind in the Fiesta with John MacCrone in fourth place in his Fiesta, 1 second behind Bogie. Gary Adam was fifth and top 2WD at this early stage in his Mk2. 

After the third stage, McRae was still leading from Newby, but then the sun gave way to dark scudding clouds and a heavy shower for part of stage 4.John MacCrone dropped out of the top four in stage 3 when the power steering failed and this was explained at the end: “It’s fixed. Apparently all I needed to do was switch it off, re-start it and it would re-set – but I didn’t know.” That was followed by some Muilleach expression which can be summed up in English as ‘dash it all!’

Just as the front runners lined up for stage 4, the rain fell in one big sodden blustery lump and then moved on, but it caught some folk out.

So after 4 stages, McRae still leads, but I caught up with Stig Blomqvist who had a quick change of car before the rally started. He’s now out in the Jim McRae Vauxhall Firenza - with the V8! When I asked him what it was like in the wet, he smiled: “It was very nice!”

As for Andrew ‘The Entertainer’ Gallacher down in 11^th place, he needs a skelp. The Fiesta Evolution is getting up to some crazy angles, like a drift car at times, and he’s even handbraking it round the Knockhill hairpin. All opposite lock and tyre smoke, but he’s happy: “I thought this event was all about having fun.”  And that’s the way everyone is viewing it.

Leaderboard after 4:
1, A McRae, Proton, 14m 00s
2, D Bogie, Fiesta, 14m 07s

3, A Newby, Subaru, 14m 11s
4, J Paterson,Mk2, 14m 30s
5, G Adam, Mk2, 14m 32s
6, J Rintoul, Hyundai, 14m 44s