Busy session this afternoon at the 1. 7 km test stage
ahead of tomorrow's rally and Borders TV has just turned up. Pity we'll only
get a preview tonight and no televised report tomorrow! Such is the sport of
rallying.
Bruce McCombie will be pleased that he came along today. He's
blown the Lancer's turbo. Apparently it was reconditioned before the Grampian,
so he's not happy. Brother Scott is birling round the stage good style despite
complaining about his Lancer's clutch. According to
the service crew the clutch is fine, the fault is in "his heid".
Speaking of birling, I'm surprised John Wink isn't dizzy the number of times
he's been round in the Hyundai. But then he's got Mat Edwards sitting beside
him, so no doubt there will be a bit of instruction going on and advice being
given. Mat's also co-driving tomorrow as John Forrest is sitting in with his
wife Aileen in the family Lancer and we all know how that ended up the last
time he co-drove for the Missus. On it's roof.
Willie Bonniwell was trying out Gus Kennedy's Impreza on the loose
with Fred adjusting the suspension and brakes to get it handling the way Willie
wanted. Anyway he's away now and happy - apparently it's handling like a Mk2
Escort! It was fishtailing like a kite in a tornado under braking at the finish
of the stage but he's happy.
Alan Dickson obviously had a fruitful day. "We've been
messing about with suspension settings all day and learned one thing - we
should have left them all the way they were." He also tried a couple of
practice starts with his 'launch control' - "That went well too, after
telling everyone to stand well back - I stalled it." As you do.
Greg Pollock is having his first run out in the Mk1 for 5 years.
He lives in Canada these days and brother Willie keeps the car here so he
doesn't get much chance to drive it although Willie makes sure the cobwebs
don't grow on it. Anyway, his Canadian girlfriend, Alysaa, is over too for her
first run in a rally car. You can tell she's Canadian, she's wearing a tartan
lumberjack jacket cos she says it's cold over here. And this from a lady who
comes from a country with polar bears!
