Saturday 25 June 2016

Rally - RSAC Scottish



Elfyn Evans has a 13 second lead after two runs through Twiglees and Castle O’er on T-day’s RSAC Scottish Rally at Dumfries, while second placed David Bogie has a 2 second gap to Fredrik Ahlin.

David was a a bit disappointed that Elfyn was so far in front but remember, this was the guy who spent three days in Ireland last week on tarmac, in a RHD car with rear wheel drive.  He had a test on Wednesday in his left-hooker, four wheel drive Skoda but wasn’t quite on the pace. Then he turns up here this morning and he’s giving Fredrik a hard time. That takes some doing!

“We had a rear puncture at the end of the first stage,” said David, “we didn’t really lose much time, so we were lucky. Following the lines of the other two (Elfyn and Fredrik), they were taking big cuts and pulling stones out. I was thinking it was only a matter of time before one of us got a puncture!” And where were you when you were thinking this, David was asked: “Aye, I was using the same lines.” Nuff said.

Jock Armstrong was out and under the Subaru when he pulled in to service: “It’s over heating,” he shouted from below, “We’ve fitted a new exhaust and I don’t think we’ve got enough heat shielding on it, so the temperature is building up and we’re not getting enough airflow through it.” The plan was to cut holes in the sumpguard.

Euan Thorburn was relieved to get two troublefree stages under his belt in the Peugeot  and rolled into service in 6th place with Mike Faulkner 10th.

Garry Pearson had a spin in the first stage which cost him over half a minute and he completed the first two tests in 15th place overall.

Shaun Sinclair had a puncture on the first stage and a broken driveshaft on the second in the Subaru. Scott McBeth is out: “We hit a big rock 3 miles in to the first stage and the thump on the sumpguard  sent quite a shock through the car and it just cut out and it won’t re-start, so it’s something electrical that has broken but we can’t find it.” Murray Coulthard’s Citroen was spotted parked at the roadside after SS2 with the bonnet up.

Oh, and one more thing. Pity the Marshals. The midges were out in force in Eskdalemuir this morning. The place was fair hoachin' with the pesky wee, bloodthirsty blighters. That's the only downside of marshalling in Scotland, eh?

Leaderboard after 2 (of 8) stages:
1, E Evans, 14m 04.4
2, D Bogie, 14m 17.7
3, F Ahlin, 14m 19.5
4, T Cave, 14m 20.1
5, D Hendry, 14m 41.8
6, E Thorburn, 14m 45.8
7, J Greer, 14m 50.1
8, J Moffett, 14m 51.5
9, J Armstrong, 14m 51.8
10, M Faulkner, 14m 53.4   

No comments:

Post a Comment