Rally - Back to work

It’s amazing what you come across when trawling through the archives. The two pictures of the blue Subaru show a promising up and coming young Scottish driver testing at Sweet Lamb 21 years ago – but who?

The other two pics show the ‘Hebridean Hurricane’ and the ‘Banchory Bullet’ in action on the 2004 Granite City Rally and there’s plenty more where they came from as I work my way through the 2000s.

Anyway, that’s all in the past, this weekend there’s a couple of rather important events coming up. Secrets will be revealed on Saturday 15th February when the Scottish Association of Motor Sport Clubs announce the winners of the ‘2024 Scottish Motorsport Awards’ in Duns at the Jim Clark Museum while on Sunday 16th, the Scottish rallying season gets seriously underway at Knockhill.

Sunday’s Border Access Knockhill Rally Stages opens this year’s Carnegie Fuels Scottish Tarmack Rally Championship while the MG3 Rally Challenge, Back to Roots Tarmack Championship and the BRTC North of England Tarmacadam Rally Championship will add to the fun and frolics.

And if you think the top ten looks good, just look at the firepower lining up behind them. And while Ross Hunter will be hard to beat, Peter Stewart will go like a shell in that wee Peugeot giving Barry Groundwater and Donnie MacDonald a hard time, but the winner could come from any one of the top twenty like young Owen Paterson at number 11, the mercurial Billy McLelland at 14 or the shy and retiring (not!) Angus Lawrie at 18. And if Lee Hastings behaves himself he could provide another surprise, and then of course there is ‘the Sheriff’ seeded at number 21 - to match his age – surely not, eh? Or how about an outside bet – Dangerous Des for outright victory? You never know in rallying, eh?

The first of ten stages will get underway at 8.15am.

Oh, and by the way, I’ll have some books with me, so if Santa wasn’t kind to you last Christmas, you can catch up here, plus I’ll have some with me in Duns on Saturday.

Sunday’s Top Twenty:

1, Ross Hunter/Chris Dodds (Mitsubishi Evo9)
2, Barry Groundwater/Ashleigh Will (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo6)
3, Peter Stewart/Harry Marchbank (Citroen C3 Rally2)
4, Donnie MacDonald/Andrew Falconer (VW Polo R5)
5, Nick Stamper/Glenn Mercer (Citroen DS3 R5)
6, Stephen Thompson/Gordon McCheyne (Ford Escort Mk3)
7, Kyle Adam/Steven Brown (Ford Escort Mk2)
8, Michael Glendinning/Charley Sayer Payne (Subaru Impreza)
9, Joe Mckeand/Charlotte McDowall (Subaru Impreza)
10, Johnnie Mackay/Rachel Matheson (Mitsubishi Evo7)
11, Owen Paterson/Scott Sloan (Subaru GC8)
12, Lee Hastings/Cole Hastings (Subaru Impreza)
14, Billy McLelland/Chris Robertson (Subaru Impreza N15)
15, Des Campbell/Rhys Donaldson (Peugeot 206)
16, Dave McIntyre/Cameron Dunn (Citroen C2 Max)
17, Dave Bellerby/Callum Spoors (Ford Escort)
18, Angus Lawrie/Leesa Watson (Vauxhall Astra)
19, Orrin McDonnell/Kristina Cameron (Mitsubishi Evo)
20, Ross MacDonald/Matthew Johnstone (Mitsubishi Evo9)