Pete and Lou with Mr & Mrs Croall |
Previously run over the tarmac roads of the Otterburn
Ranges and through the forest roads of Kielder Forest, the 1988 event was back
in the forests. Starting and finishing in Kelso, the 48 mile event featured one
private ‘Spectator Special’ in Springwood Park followed by eight forest stages
in Kielder.
Another big change was its inclusion in the Esso
Scottish Rally Championship for the first time since 1982. It was also a round
of the Esso Metro Super Challenge attracting a large number of 6R4s. In fact, 6R4s
filled four of the top five places at the finish of the rally which was won by
Pete Slights and Lou Naylor, but in second place overall was the RWD Peugeot
Nissan of a young Colin McRae and the not quite so young Neil Ewing. Colin and Neil
Phil Walker and Dave Wilford delivered one of their most impressive drives with sixth place in the Ford Escort Mk2 ahead of Stewart Robertson and Lawrance Clark in their Talbot Sunbeam Lotus. In fact there were six Scottish crews in the top ten including the third placed Metro of David Gillanders and Bob Wilson, Jim Carty and Bobby Wallace were ninth in their Metro while a young Andy Horne with Mike Ramsay were a mighty impressive tenth in the Opel Ascona.
Just outside the top ten in 11th place was
the Nissan 240RS of Donald Milne and John Baird.Phil and Dave with Louise
Louise Aitken Walker and international rugby star John Jeffrey joined event sponsor Mr & Mrs Robert Croall and other local worthies in the guest line-up presenting the prizes at a very festive open air presentation in Kelso Town Square.
Oh, and a couple of other youngsters did rather well
too, Robbie head and Robert Reid won their class.
The Bairns - Robbie and Robert with John Jeffrey |
No comments:
Post a Comment