After yesterday's rain, more rain, and even more rain, the sun peeked
over the horizon at start of play for Day of the Mach 1 Stages at Machrihanish.
There was one wee fight just after the second stage of the day got underway
when a passing shower scattered the spectators but it was short-lived and it
was pretty much slicks all the way, or in Eddie O'Donnell's case - knobblies,
or not, depending on your point of view. Apparently they were knobblies when
they were new to their previous owner who passed them on to Eddie who used them
on the Argyll Stages forest rally at Dunoon and then used up what was left here
at Machrihanish. Perhaps it's a good job Mull isn't on this year, I reckon he'd
have a go at using them again.
Anyway, the
rally was fairly won by Shaun Sinclair. After the disappointment of last year
when a driveshaft broke while he was leading, the black beast (the car that is,
not Shaun) behaved itself impeccably this time. Well, almost, it ran out of
brakes two corners from the end and he only just made the Finish line.
Nigel Feeney
debuted his new MINI and scored second while Alan Kirkaldy fought back from
19th after a rear puncture on the third stage yesterday to finish third overall
in a scintillating display of Mk2 motoring. As one observer remarked:
"That's human traction control in action!"
The DenSport
boys helped out John Marshall on Saturday night and welded up the Subaru's
exhaust and he finished 4th ahead of James Gibb in Brian Watson's Lancer with
The Sheriff rounding off the top six in another Lancer.
Taylor Gibb
had been on course for third place till a humungus overshoot caught the eye of
the officials and they deemed he had gone 'wrong direction' so he dropped down
the order.
But what a
rally, this morning's stages comprised two 12 milers and two 10 milers, with
most folks saying the new routes this year were a huge success and a terrific
challenge. And you know what, I almost felt sorry for the boys who spent far
too long in the pub last night for the 8.15am start this morning. You know who
I mean!
If
Kirkaldy's was the drive of the rally, then Gareth White was the second drive
of the rally. Even a puncture didn't stop his 1600 Peugeot getting into the top
ten on what was a tremendously fast rally, and Donald Bowness borrowed Archie
McCallum's Corsa to score the 1400 class win with 16th overall.
And the only
trouble with Sinclair's win? "It looks like I might have to do the Solway
Coast now." Bring it on.
Provisional
Top Ten:
1, Shaun
Sinclair/Fred MacLean (Subaru WRC S9) 106m 36s
2, Nigel
Feeney/Phil Sandham (Mini Countryman JCW WRC) 108m 02s
3, Alan
Kirkaldy/Cameron Fair (Ford Escort Mk2) 108m 47s
4, John
Marshall/Scott Crawford (Subaru Impreza) 109m 05s
5, James
Gibb/Charley Sayer-Payne (Mitsubishi Evo9) 110m 17s
6, Brian
Watson/Caroline Will (Mitsubishi Evo) 110m 37s
7, Alan
Wallace/Darren Robertson (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo6) 113m 51s
8, Colin
Gemmell/Derek Keir (Ford Escort Mk2) 113m 58s
9, Gareth
White/Harry Marchbank (Peugeot 208 R2 Vti) 115m 08s
10, Tom
Blackwood/Gordon Winning (Ford Escort Cosworth) 115m 16s
( BIG report to follow in:
www.jaggybunnet.co.uk - when Jaggy gets around to it! )
