Rally - Difficult choices

Within 12 hours of posting my appeal for 1980 rally results on FB I had an answer to two of my three queries from Charles Turner. Many thanks Charles, that just illustrates the power and the good side of social media. However I am still stuck for the names of the Class 1 winners on the 1980 Strathclyde Motor Spares Trossachs Rally which took place on the 26^th of October. All I have from that event is a hand written top thirty – no such thing as computer print outs back then!

The Class 1 contenders on that day included Jim Atkinson/N Barrington (Imp), John Allan/P Maguire (Mini), D Johnstone/J Martin (Imp), J W S Duff/ J Methven (Imp), George Donaldson/S Henderson (Mini), Richard Moore/A N Other (Mini) and Drew Struthers/Mary Struthers (Imp).

So if any of the above have a wee trophy somewhere which shows they won Class 1 on the 1980 Trossachs, that would fill the one gap I have in the results listings!

Meanwhile the process of selecting photos to go with the text of this 1980-1989 book has commenced and it’s a nightmare. Not so much what to put in, but what has to be left out!

The 1980s could be regarded as the most important decade in Scottish rallying as it nurtured the arrival of future world champions including Louise Aitken-Walker, Colin McRae, Derek Ringer and Robert Burns not to mention the likes of other notable figures such as Alister McRae, Robbie Head, Barbara Armstrong (although she did go racing as well!) and George Donaldson plus a whole host of Scottish and British champions.

On that basis the book is likely to feature rather more photos of some of the above than others as there is a bigger story to tell outside of Scottish rallying, especially Colin, and I have many pics of the young Colin that have never been published.

No matter what is chosen, criticism will follow, but just remember the author is backed by ‘The Bears’ from Coltness – and you don’t want to upset them!