Rally - Borders Hill Rally

Borders Hill Rally ... After 96 miles of stages, Anthony Jackson won the weekend's Scottish Borders Hill Rally in his 4.2 ltr Warrior by just over 2 minutes from William Stubbs in his 5 ltr Milner. The result would have been much closer had it not been for a 1 minute timing penalty incurred by Stubbs. Had that been resolved, the winner's margin would have been a mere 66 seconds - that's a lot less than a second per mile! One puncture or overshoot - and who knows?

In third place was Mark Jacques in his 6.2 ltr Lofthouse Freelander with the highest placed 'home' crews of David Steven and Peter King in another Lofthouse Freelander in 7th place while George and Jacqueline Bryson were 12th overall in their Class D winning 4 ltr Kirkland Proto.

Colin Stevenson finished 23rd, Billy Cruickshank and his 'puffing billy' diesel Land Rover 25th, and Andrew Wicklow 26th while Tony Rae failed to finish.

There were very few spectators at the event and if you were sat at home watching the telly then you lost out. The deep rumbles of V8s and V6s echoing around The Glenkens area of Dumfries & Galloway made the ears ring and the heart sing.

And if you thought a bunch of four wheel drive vehicles would be slow and cumbersome, think again, some of the cars were hitting 100 mph on the straights.

 

There was one downside though, the spectator area had been moved even further back from the hairpin than last year. That was bad enough compared to times past, but this time we got a grand view of withered bracken and coloured roofs flashing past.

Even so, it was still a most enjoyable day out in the woods. The run home was excellent too, courtesy of the new Fiat 124 Spyder. 

Despite all the jibes, and most ill-deserved comments regarding

hairdressers and their choice of car, the drive home back up through Moniaive and Thornhill and onwards up through the Dalveen Pass was quite invigorating. Bunnet clamped on tight, hood down, heated seats on and heater going full blast. Marvellous. Fffff-reezin' marvellous.

Top Six:
1, Anthony Jackson/Nicky Brook (Warrior 306) 2hrs 17mins 15secs
2, William Stubbs/Andy Hill (Milner R5) 2:19:21
3, Mark Jacques/Adam Nicholson (Lofthouse Freelander LS3) 2:25:26
4, Ian Chiles/Gary Bull (Land Rover Tomcat 106)  2:25:28
5, Rob Bool/Victoria Vaughan (A/T Challenger) 2:27:09
6, Paul Myers/Andy Foster (Tornado 100) 2:27:18