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| The Winners! |
Elfyns Evans’ winning margin over Takamoto Katsuta was a mere 3.8 seconds but at Knockhill on Sunday Peter Stewart and Harry Marchbank finished just two seconds ahead of Ross Hunter and Chris Dodds after an epic, enthralling duel around the Fife circuit undulations.
Hunter took the early lead, faster than Stewart by five seconds over the first three stages then Stewart was faster by four seconds over SS4 to close the gap to one second. After the break Stewart snatched five seconds from Hunter and they tied on SS6. It was Hunter again by six seconds on SS7 with Stewart taking back four on the next one.
With two stages to go Stewart was leading on 43mins 52secs from Hunter on 43m 54s then Hunter swooped around the circuit to snatch back the rally lead by one second. The spectators surged back to the barriers to watch the final stage as darkness started to fall.
The sharp crackle of the turbo on over-run announced the arrival of the bright yellow projectile over the start/finish straight and down towards the triangle. Without any sign of a lift the Mitsubishi turned in, the momentum pushing the car sideways towards the grass, still without any sign of a lift as Hunter drifted all the way round and on the back straight. On well worn tyres, that took some serious commitment – apparently faither was saving the good tyres for another event!
Then the grey Citroen hurtled over the crest, the French four cylinders cracking away like a box of bangers and entered the triangle at full chat. Once again there was no sign of a lift even as the car drifted towards the grass, but Stewart kept it planted drifting on to the back straight – and it kept drifting. The car slid on to the grass, and still no sign of a lift as the nose was pointed towards the black stuff 100 yards away.
At that point Stewart thought he’d blown it but got a big surprise on the finish line. Three seconds quicker than his rival. Peter and Harry had won the rally by two seconds from Ross and Chris. Phew!
In third place nearly a minute behind the top two were Johnnie Mackay and Rachel Matheson but MacKay was delighted with that. He had been concerned about a clattering coming from the rear diff but as the day wore on it didn’t seem to get any worse so he just got the head down and sped on to keep the mercurial Billy McLelland and Chris Robertson behind them which they did by just nine seconds.
Barry Groundwater and Ashleigh Will were fifth ahead of Lee and Cole Hastings to round off the top six, but they were the lucky ones. Nick Stamper and Glenn Mercer were more intimately re-acquainted with Knockhill when first time out in the new Citroen DS3, it slithered under braking on the slimy surface into some tyre markers on the first stage and then did it again on the third stage. No major damage but valuable time lost, and Kyle Adam with Steven Brown were expected to be pose a threat in the 2WD class but the Escort broke both throttle springs on SS2 and missed out on SS3 altogether as faither and grandfaither struggled painfully to reach a certain grub screw on the throttle linkage from underneath the car!
Drive of the day? Spoiled for choice! It was extremely difficult to try and highlight just one driver especially since it is almost expected to see a 1600cc FWD car in the top ten overall places these days, especially when driven by ‘Dangerous Des’ Campbell (with a medal for Rhys sitting beside him!). They finished a stunning 8th overall. Equally impressive was Ally Currie in the wee 1400cc Peugeot who not only won his class, but he and Alex Hill managed a top twenty finish, just! They were 20th overall.
Further down the results list in 27th and 28th places were the MG3s of Rian Walker and Thomas Milne. Those two battled furiously all day like twa wee dugs fighting over a burst ball to be the best of a 9 car entry of MG3s. There was rarely more than 6 seconds between them at any one time. Going into the final stage Rian and Stuart McBride were dead level with Thomas and Neil Jeffrey and the outcome to be determined on the final stage. One wee slip from Thomas and Rian had it – by six seconds. Magic.
But if I had to pick just one driver it would have to be third placed Johnnie Mackay with Rachel Matheson in the elderly Evo7. Having initially thought he would have to tread carefully with ‘old girl’ (not Rachel, the car!) with its noisy diff, he found himself in third place behind the front fliers but under threat from the pursuit. So he thought to himself: “To hang with this, it’s lasted this long, I’m going for it.” And he did. I reckon his drive was every bit as impressive as the top two – and he got one fastest stage time!
Photo shows: Peter and Harry with Stuart Gray presenting the new ‘Jimmy McRae Trophy’ to the winners.
Top Ten:
1, Peter Stewart/Harry Marchbank (Citroen C3 Rally2) 51mins 18secs
2, Ross Hunter/Chris Dodds (Mitsubishi Evo9) 51:20
3, Johnnie Mackay/Rachel Matheson (Mitsubishi Evo7) 52:15
4, Billy McLelland/Chris Robertson (Subaru Impreza N15) 52:24
5, Barry Groundwater/Ashleigh Will (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo6) 52:56
6, Lee Hastings/Cole Hastings (Subaru Impreza) 53:01
7, Joe Mckeand/Charlotte McDowall (Subaru Impreza) 53:12
8, Des Campbell/Rhys Donaldson (Peugeot 206) 53:37
9, Ross MacDonald/Matthew Johnstone (Mitsubishi Evo9) 54:29
10, Orrin McDonnell/Kristina Cameron (Mitsubishi Evo8) 54:44
Full Results courtesy of Raymond Mann’s excellent ‘Scotresults’ service at:
https://sites.google.com/view/scotresults
