Saturday 2 May 2015

Rally - Dead heat

With just 4 stages gone in today's Coltel Granite City Rally, it couldn't be much tighter at the top. Dave Weston and David Bogie are tied on identical times. They tied on the first stage, Weston was a second quicker on the next, they tied again on the third, and Bogie was a second quicker on the fourth.

The sun was shining this morning as the crews tackled two short 'spectator specials' around Aberedeen Exhibition Centre and it was still warm for the first two tests. "That first run through Fetteresso was not ideal as the first stage," said Bogie, "it's just so quick from the start and there's no chance to settle in. The Fiesta is geared for 111mph and we were flat out for a lot of it!"

Jock Armstrong is third ahead of Mike Faulkner, Shaun Sinclair and Andrew Gallacher. Donnie MacDonald is 8th behind Mark McClloch but Donnie's Lancer already has a few battle scars. "I spun backwards into a banking," said MacDonald, "but it was a 4th gear spin." Fortunately it's only cosmetic.

Quintin Milne is off the pace, but his tyres were too soft for the first two forest tests, and Bruce McCombie is outside the top ten: "I hit a chicane in Durris," he said, "I lost the tail and couldn't get it back. It's not the car, it's me. My head's not in the right place this morning."

It also looks as though Chris Collie, Brian Watson and Ken Wood are all out. A pipe came off Collie's Lancer on the first stage and he lost all his water. He got it sorted and went into Stage 3, but didn't come out. Brian Watson was spotted on the wrong side of a ditch in SS4 and Ken Wood has apparently parked the Dolomite on its ear in a ditch.

And speaking of water. Angus Lawrie lost his. The Corsa's thermostat stripped its bolts and he got stuck in mid stage 3. He took the bolts out of his co-driver's foot rest and refitted the thermostat then they refilled the radiator - from a 'green' pond. In fact there might be frog spawn in there too. We'll find out in six months time if his car is full of frogs one morning!

Now for the next two tests and the sun has disappeared. There also appears to be few snow flakes trying to make a landing!

Leaderboard after 4 (of 9 ) stages:
1, D Weston, 11m 01s
2, D Bogie, 11m 01s
3, J Armstrong, 11m 20s
4, M Faulkner, 11m 34s
5, S Sinclair, 11m 40s
6, A Gallacher, 11m 40s
7, M McCulloch, 11m 41s
8, D MacDonald, 11m 43s
9, S Clark, 11m 50s
10, Q Milne, 11m 57s

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