Rally - Fast & Furious 2019

It wasn't so much a case of who won, but who didn't lose on today's DCC Stages Rally at Ingliston. Just about everyone had a problem to fix or an issue to contend with during the course of an eventful day.

Winner of last year's DCC Stages, Gordon Morrison did it again, but he wasn't without his troubles. He led after the first stage then Andrew Kirkaldy led for the next three, before Morrison again snatched the lead on Stage 5 with Kirkaldy fighting back to claim 3rd behind Alistair Inglis. And if you are wondering where he came from, join the club!

Anyway, Gordon got the drop on the bunch on the first stage, but then had a problem with his flat-shifter between 3rd and 4th gears. Arron Newby from TEG Sport fixed it then the Subaru had a problem with fuel surge, so young Mr Fixit was called into action again. Meantime Kirkaldy had swept into the lead, but was struggling with tyre choice. On the 5th test, the Escort locked up under braking and slid into a bale. Not much damage but he dropped to 3rd place 5 secs behind Alistair Inglis in the Exige and 16 secs behind the leader.

John Marshall was mixing it with the top three as well until the Subaru overshot the Merge then committed the cardinal sin of reversing back, and was penalised. Alan Gardiner too was in the hunt till the Mk1 hit a bump, broke the strut and bent a bottom arm. Tom Morris had an early issue with his flat-shift linkage and then stalled the Skoda on the startline of the final stage while John MacCrone was out of luck when the Fiesta inadvertently shut itself down just after the start of SS3, prompting a switch-off and a re-set, and the crew were puzzled as to why. Ian Paterson was having a few teething problems in his re-shelled and rebuilt Subaru and didn't get a clean run till the final two stages.

Which meant that Morris finished 4th with Colin Gemmell 5th and Willie Paterson rounding off the top six. Ian Paterson (no relation) finished 7th just ahead of the wild Opel Manta of Richard Sutherland.

Stephen Thompson in his Mk2 won the 1600 class by 8 secs from Dangerous Des Campbell in the Peugeot 206 while Marc Tinsley won the 1400 class in his Peugeot 205 from the Peugeot 106 of James Strachan.

What a day, but you'll have to wait till later in the week to find out the full story in the on-line mag although it did keep the recovery boys busy. And at least we got some sunbathing done in the afternoon.

Top Ten:

1, Gordon Morrison/Calum MacPherson (Subaru Impreza) 56m 15s

2, Alistair Inglis/Jane Nicol (Lotus Exige) 56:17

3, Andrew Kirkaldy/Peter Carstairs (Ford Escort Mk2) 56:23

4, Tom Morris/Russell Smith (Skoda Fabia) 57:44

5, Colin Gemmell/Derek Keir (Ford Escort Mk2) 57:54

6, Willie Paterson/Euan O’Neill (Ford Escort Mk2) 58:25

7, Ian Paterson/Allan Paterson (Subaru B13) 58:33

8, Richard Sutherland/Jack Sutherland (Opel Manta) 58:49

9, Greg Inglis/Ewan Stanhope (Lotus Exige) 59:24

10, Ross McCallum/James Ralph (MG Maestro) 59:28