If ever an event demonstrated the extreme highs and the
bitterly dispiriting lows that rallying can generate, it was today’s Brick
& Steel Border Counties Rally. Going into the penultimate stage, Greg
McKnight was on course for the best result of his short career. He was lying
second, 17 seconds behind Jock Armstrong. This was sensational stuff.
The yellow Lancer set off in hot pursuit of the orange
Impreza, but one thing more important than power and speed, is brakes. And Greg
didn’t have any. Half way through a brake pipe burst. He made it to the stage
finish and crimped off the pipe. He dropped to fourth place. Bad enough. Then
in the final stage, two punctures, both on the driver’s side. If this was a
film script, the audience would be hurling pop corn at the screen in corny
disbelief. He finished fifth, poor reward for glorious effort.
At the rally finish, Jock said: “Greg’s day will come. That
was some drive.” Finishing second was a relieved Mike Faulkner. Relieved,
because the new car was proving its worth: “The car’s good, it’s all about me
now. We enjoyed the battle with Greg and Rory. We stretched our legs a bit on
that final stage and managed to catch Rory.”
As for Rory Young: “We had a wee bit of an ‘incident’ in a
ditch in Elibank. We were almost on our side, it was one of those moments when
you think to yourself, ‘is this going over or is it going to come back?’
Fortunately, it came back. That was scary. It was very fast.”
Another happy man was Mark McCulloch having got to the root
of his Snowman problems: “The solenoid in the diff pump was jamming so we got
it fixed and it was fine today.” But he too had a scary moment: “It was a flat
in 5th gear moment in Yair. We came round a left hander and the tail
went out, and just kept going, hit a banking and bounced us back on to the
road. I backed off after that!”
That meant Greg McKnight finished fifth, still a fine result
but not what might have been. Heart wrenching, but that’s rallying.
Just ask David Bogie. He punctured a tyre and at the next
corner the Skoda just understeered off the road: “I tried to drive it out the
ditch,” said David, “but it just kept digging itself in.” That left CA1 team
mate Fredrik Ahlin to take the first victory of the new BRC season from Tom
Cave and Osian Pryce, with Euan Thorburn in 8th place after 2
punctures.
The wet and skittery conditions claimed more than their fair
share of victims. More ‘offs’ than a school full of trapeze learners, but most
of them got back on with little more than embarrassment and some time loss. Like
Shaun Sinclair who set some scintillating times, but an off on the second stage
cost him a maximum. No damage, just off in the glaur and beached. At least he
kept going. Steven Clark lost out on a top four placing when he too skited off
the road and got stuck.
Leaderboard
1, J Armstrong/ Swinscoe, 43m 32.4s
2, M Faulkner/P Foy, 44m 02.9s
3, R Young/A Cathers, 44m 14.6s
4, M McCulloch/M Hendry, 44m 33.8s
5, G McKnight/L Marshall, 44m 56.4s
6, P Stephenson/P Walsh 45m 39.7s
7, I Wilson/W Rogers, 46m 13.0s
8, I Baumgart/M Dickson, 46m 32.6s
9, M Binnie/C Mole, 46m 32.9s
10, J Wink/J Forrest, 46m 36.9s
Full report in Wednesday’s Motorsport News!
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