It looks like Uddingston’s
Stuart Loudon will need to get some new travel luggage from Santa next month as
he will be making a return to the World Rally Championship next season. A deal
has been done to co-drive for 23 year old rising Estonian star, Sander Parn,
winner of the ‘Drive DMACK Fiesta Trophy’ in 2014.
The pair will contest the 2016 WRC2 series in a Ford Fiesta R5 running under ‘Drive DMACK’ colours and will be run by two-time World Rally Champions M-Sport. With Monte Carlo yet to be confirmed as the first round of the 2016 Championship it looks as though the pairing will contest February’s Rally Sweden (11-14 Feb) as their first round of the year.
Ahead of that they plan to tackle the Arctic Rally (28-30 Jan)
in northern Finland to get in some serious pace note practice. That’s because
the duo first got together ahead of Rally Spain in Catalunya and Wales Rally GB
working on the recce for both events with M-Sport.
“The recces went really well,” said Stuart. “Obviously, you only get to find out how you’re working together when you get in and get going at competitive speeds, but so far, so good. Sander and I have really started to build a good relationship straight away.”
“The recces went really well,” said Stuart. “Obviously, you only get to find out how you’re working together when you get in and get going at competitive speeds, but so far, so good. Sander and I have really started to build a good relationship straight away.”
But before all that, Stuart is off to China this weekend to
meet up with Australia based fellow Coltness Car Club member, Alister McRae to
contest the Wuyi Rally (20-23 Nov) in Zhejiang province, on China’s east coast.
The pair will drive their regular BAIC-Senova D50.
By the way, did you know the biscuiteering evangelist’s luggage
is often heavier leaving the country than returning? That’s the opposite way round
from every other Scottish tourist who traditionally stocks up on ‘jimmy hats’, haggis
and whisky in the duty free shops on the way home from far away.
It’s not that Stuart uses his stash of Tunnocks teacakes and
caramel wafers to ‘influence’ rally timekeepers and marshals, but bartering
biscuits is often more effective than dealing in sterling or dollars.
That’s the entrepreneurial spirit – Scottish style.
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