This weekend’s Voly Grampian Forest Rally (8/9 August) may well
concentrate the minds of rally folks on future possibilities. Behind the scenes
in Aberdeen City Council, SportScotland and MS UK there is work going on with a
view to bringing a round of the World Rally Championship to Scotland. Added to
that, there would appear to be a clear understanding of the financial commitment
required - and that hasn’t frightened anyone off yet.
The
idea is not quite as daft as some people might think. Aberdeen has the facilities,
the North East has the forests and Scotland has the clubs, volunteers and
expertise.
The
North East already has a history of staging big events having previously hosted
rounds of the British Rally Championship in the 1980s and 90s.
For
instance, forty years ago, the then one-day Granite City Rally managed to run
96 cars through their 14 stage route and given the way that World Rally events
are run these days, hosting a WRC counter would be a doddle. OK, maybe not
quite a doddle, but most certainly workable and manageable.
Driving
the prototype RED Ford Sierra 4x4T, Willie Rutherford and Bryan Harris won the
1985 event with a time of 79 mins 51 seconds. Driving his new Nissan 240RS
George Marshall, with Lyn Jenkins finished second some 41 seconds behind. That’s
quite a feat, the 2WD machine losing out to the 4WD turbo by less than a minute
over 75 miles of forest roads. It’s also worth noting that a certain Louise
Aitken-Walker with Ellen Morgan finished sixth overall in a Ford Escort Mk2.
On
a separate note, according to Police and AA patrol estimates, there were some
40,000 spectators in the Grampian forests for the rally that day.
Photos
show Willie and Bryan with John Horton and also Keith Oswin of ‘Autosport’
magazine (when it used to be a weekly and covered rallying!) making a presentation
to Bryan with Willie wondering: “It’s a bit late for that, is it not?”
https://www.grampianforestrally.com/
https://fife-motor-sports-agency.square.site/
