Book - Countdown has begun

Having now written and published two books on the Scottish Rally Championship, the expectation was that the third one would be a dawdle. Not so. The excitement of an imminent new publishing date (Monday 3rd Nov.) is burdened with anxiety and even a touch of fear. Not physical fear, but concern that potential readers won’t like it. Despite the success and acclaim which has followed the first two, nagging doubts remain and no amount of assurance from family and friends has assuaged those fears. Crazy, eh?

Perhaps that’s the right word, crazy. Or maybe it’s just the onset of auld age and the uncertainties that accompany advancing years. However there were a couple of issues which troubled the editorial thought processes.

The first was how to treat those rallies which embraced more than just the Scottish Championship, like the British, BTRDA, IRTC, National, Historic, regional and one-make competitions. After all, these books were intended to document the Scottish Championship not others. The easy option would have been just to report the ‘Scottish Championship’ points scoring events, but in the end I tried to address every part of each rally. This was pretty straightforward when an event counted towards just two or three championships, but events like the three day Jim Clark Rally provided a constant headache with its multiplicity of championships and one-make series over the years.

These multi-reports provided a constant concern and required umpteen re-writes but the feeling was that these events around the Scottish Championship counters were an integral part of the story and therefore had to be told. Often some of our lot were chasing points in British, National and regional competitions and were up against some of the best and brightest talent from down south and across the water, but by reporting on all ‘rallies’ within one ‘event’, their performances were able to be measured against and compared with the visitors.

Scottish rally fans will be well aware of how competitive our natural born drivers and co-drivers are but reporting their performances against the visitors puts their results into context and a wider audience can therefore derive a better understanding of the competition. Anyway, that’s my justification.

The other big problem concerned the tragic accident of 2007. Of course it couldn’t be ignored, the ‘McRae’ chapter in each book so far has been a very popular addition so it couldn’t be avoided in this latest volume. There was simply no point, and no desire, to delve into that terrible event, too much has already been reported and written about it, but equally, it couldn’t be ignored. What has been written in this book has therefore been written from a slightly different, and personal, viewpoint and others will judge whether it’s too much or too little, or indeed, whether it should have been ignored.

However, after much thought and many re-writes I am content with what has been written, regardless of what others might think. If there are doubters and critics, just remember one thing, ‘The Bears’ are very sensitive beasties – slow to rouse but quick to respond.

Anyway, the deed is done, and the results will be available for all to see shortly.

Full access details for Dalserf Bowling Club were given in the previous post but it’s also worth noting that the access road to the Club has recently been re-tarmacadamed -and now sports three ‘sleeping policemen’, not the uniformed type but the hump across the road type! If you’re intending to arrive in your McLaren, Ferrari or Lamborghini, best leave it on the public road!

Another point worth noting for newcomers to the venue. As you turn right at the foot of the road towards the Club, the sweeping headlights may fail to pick up the large flat area to the right which is the car park. It’s big enough to accommodate a bigly number of cars but only if you park sensibly - and not like some service crew in a rush to park up their van at a rally

And finally, although the Club bar is cash only, the purveyor of the books will happily accept card payments or cash!!

Oh! And finally, finally, bear in mind the Bears motto: "Wha daur meddle wi’ me?" In other words, behave yersels!

The Book Launch - Part 3

Disorganisation at its best … That about sums up the next Coltness Car Club night! Once again The Bears are hosting the launch of ‘The Scottish Rally Championship 2000-2009’ book, the latest in the series documenting the life and times of Scotland’s biggest and longest running national rally championship competition.

The Bears meet regularly on the first Monday of each month, and it’s open house. Non-club members are welcome although Big Alex, the club secretary, always has a stock of enrolment forms and stickers ready to sign up the innocent and unwary! There is no formal timetable, it will be just a normal, but busier, club gathering than usual although we’ll have some special guests and an MC who will chat intelligently (or maybe not!) to them during the evening.

Doors open at 7.45pm and this being Lanarkshire (the garden county of Scotland!) cash is the coinage of choice at the bar. If you’ve only got plastic, you’ll be barred! Having said that, this being a bowling club, the bevvy is cheaper than elsewhere.

And once again, folk have been attracted from near and far. Amongst the guests will be David Bogie, Andrew Wood, Dave Weston and the new Portuguese Rally Champion Co-driver, Stuart Loudon (Kris couldn’t make it!) and they have been singled out for a chat with our very own Stewart ‘the Larkhall Foghorn’ Weir who will host the evening. And knowing Stewart only too well if he spots any other likely victims up for a chat he’ll be in there quicker than big Barrie springing into action when Colin drove into service with a battered Sunbeam, Nova, Sierra or whatever! In fact if truth be known, a chap called Usain Bolt once asked Barrie how he got off his mark so quickly - and the rest is history!

But as I said, this won’t be a formal evening, just a gathering of fans and friends – and all there just for the craic – Oh, and I nearly forgot, a copy of the book!

This latest volume is virtually the same size as the previous one at 260 pages with over 360 photographs and priced the same as last time at £45. Some of the tales have never been told and many of the photographs have never been seen! Those who attend the launch will therefore get their hands on the book first before it goes on sale on-line later in the week.

Like the other two books, this latest tome will spark a few more memories, most of them good. As said in previous posts there were a couple of not so good memories this time, but rallying and sport are not immune from the trials, tribulations and tragedies of everyday life 

The actual book launch date has therefore been set for Monday 3rd November and the venue will again be the Dalserf Bowling Club, Ashgillhead Rd, Ashgill, Larkhall, ML9 3AF.

Although some folk will require a co-driver/navigator, while a few might seek the assistance of an explorer, Dalserf Bowling Club in the village of Ashgill is easily accessible heading East on the A71 from Junction 8 (Canderside Toll) on the M74 at Larkhall.

There’s a set of traffic lights on the A71 between the Motorway and Garrion Bridge but turn off (South) at this junction towards Ashgill and the club access road is less than a mile along there on the left (tight left!). Some local worthies still think the traffic lights are fairy lights, but the fairies are long gone these days now with the clocks going back, although there might be some ‘ghaists and houlets’ flee’in aboot tryin’ tae fin their wey hame efter Halloween!! So just ca’ canny as you approach.

One other thing, if you haven’t been to a CCC club night before you will drive past the entrance to the Bowling Club at least once before you see it. So dinnae worry, we’ve all done it! It’s a tight left on to an unsurfaced narrow road between the first and second wee hooses. There’s a fairly big car park at the foot of the lane on the right with access to the Bowling Club entrance from there.

What3Words: ///trespass.flashing.toffee

If this book is received as well as the first two then I’ll be mighty pleased but no doubt there may be the occasional lapse missed by myself and the proof readers, but sh*t happens to the best, not just me. But if any smart ‘rs’ approaches me on the night and starts the conversation with “I think there’s a wee mistake here ….” I will ask them to bear just one pre-emptive thought in mind – this is The Bears den !!

 

Rally - The future of rallying?

Last weekend (15-18 October) the FIA’s ‘ecoRally Monte Carlo’ took place in and around Monte Carlo. Taking part in the 1000 km (621 miles) event were 62 crews in a variety of EV cars from 17 car makers. Not quite a ‘special stage’ rally as we know it as the competitive part centred on 14 ‘regularity stages’ totalling some 231km (144 miles) of timed competition.

There was only one British crew, Kinross’ Richard Crozier and Shrewsbury’s Craig Parry who also contested the ‘eco Rally Scotland’ in July earlier this year with Ashleigh Morris.

The duo were one of six crews entered in ‘works’ supported Alpine A290 electric ‘hot hatches’ with Richard commenting: “That was up there among the most memorable and enjoyable experiences I’ve had. We knew that it would be tough, but we wanted to gain experience in this form of motorsport, and gather knowledge for future outings.”

Craig added: “The event was a massive step up in terms of the navigational challenge it posed. I loved it and I have learned more during this event than during my four years of rallying in the UK, given how technical it was.”

Even so they were up against some pretty experienced European crews and finished in 47th place.

 

Rally - Reflections on Mull

Unable to attend the Beatson’s Building Supplies Mull Rally this year I had to watch and listen from afar. And that in itself is awfy difficult. It’s like spectating in 2D as opposed to 5D – sight, sound, smell, touch and taste. Whilst on-line video clips can convey the sights and sounds they badly miss out on the smells such as hot brakes and clutches, burning rubber and boiling oil, and of course, the succulent smells of Cammy’s fish and chip chuck wagon wafting along the Tobermory bay.  

And then there is the physical sense of touch, not just the seeping damp through your breeks as you sit on a moss covered rock or grassy tussock waiting for cars to appear, or that sinking feeling when you trip over the in the dark and put your hands down to save yourself, only to find that the hie’lan coos have been therefore before you and left their soft brown pancakes on the ground.

As for taste, there is a plethora of on-line social media posts showing a mouth watering array of tray-bakes for rally and service crews and then the Coffee Pot in Salen and other eateries with their constant flow of adverts showing what’s on their sit-in and cairry oot menus. Watching that lot requires a bib for slevvering telly watchers.

There is yet one more sensation that is unique to Mull, the weather. From the sunshine and white sands of Calgary to the white frosts of early winter, rain that can reach parts of the human body that only orthopedists and rectal examiners have previously discovered and wind that lifts and blaws bunnets and woolly hats quicker than an R5 with launch control.

Which just all goes to prove that Mull is a physical visceral experience, not a remote armchair spectacle. You can’t taste the rain or smell the air if you’re not physically there. If you leave the island disappointed then you weren’t really there!

Just forget for a minute the HQ team safely tucked up in their electrically powered and heated offices and remember that there were around 200 volunteer souls scattered across the island out in the elements with their bright orange tabards, radios, first aid boxes and tow ropes who ensured that those participating in the fun and frolics could do so in safety knowing that sustenance and rescue was never far away and as we congratulate the winners we must never forget those who put on the show in the first place.

Of course we all know who won and who didn’t, but the on-event coverage was helped along by the pop-up appearances of the pixie-in-chief Luke Barry who filled in the progress gaps left behind by the large number of commentless video clips posted by other film-makers and fans.

Which all just left a sour taste in the mouth that once again I wasn’t able to be there. And yet there were moments to be savoured even from afar.

For instance, how can Stephen Thompson drive a Mk2 so bluidy quickly? He only gets off his ‘rs’ once or twice a year to do a rally these days, then he and Larry Higton come to Mull and finish not only top RWD car but well inside the top ten in seventh place? It’s quite simply uncanny and Stephen’s performance worthy of the good old days of Calum in a Mk2!

And as for making an impression, I reckon Alan Scott must have been feasting on Mull’s magic mushrooms! Not only top FWD but tenth overall in an MG ZR. That is just nuts. Mind you he had Rachel Matheson on the Notes although perhaps she should have been with regular driver Nikki Addison. Nikki had the ageing, sorry that should read ‘vastly experienced’, Iain Thorburn alongside in the Honda but they failed to finish when the water pulley broke – it surely wouldn’t have happened with Rachel in the car, would it? Mind you, Alan had his troubles too, replacing wheel bearings and then a wee fright before the final stage when they robbed a LR Defender for a couple of bits just to get them over the Finish Line.

It was also good to see young, well I still remember him as a boy, Ally Currie scoring a top twenty finish with the wee Peugeot 106. He and Chris Hamill finished 17th overall scoring their third class win on the trot, but that was no doubt down entirely to the support of Phoebe, Ally’s partner – and she’s 34 weeks pregnant! Some dedication there, eh? Only half a minute behind those two were another relative youngster, Yorkshire’s Lewis Hooper and our own ‘Flee’in Doc’, Steven Brown getting an excellent result in the Ford Fiesta in 18th place.

In 45th place overall was the mighty Metro 4R2 of Innes and Kirsty Mochrie. The self built, prepped and developed Rover Metro looks awfy standard from the outside but the father and daughter team had the wee motor well wound up over the dips and jumps of Mull. Just a couple of places behind were the top newcomers, Andrew Blackwood and Leesa Watson contesting their first Mull Rally in Andrew’s Ford Fiesta. Both of them knew the rally well but coming over for a looksee and bevvy session or two is rather different from coming over with a rally car and taking on the prospect of tackling a 140 mile closed road rally over twists and turns that would have a sober man dizzy!

And another thing, if Jaggy Bunnet was still handing out ‘Flying Bricks’ then Sarah Hunter would have had a new ornament for her mantelpiece. Just three weeks after a terrible tumble at the McRae Challenge at Knockhill, Sarah was back in a rally car contesting Mull – which is just a wee bit different from Knockhill!  Anyway she was not only the first woman driver but she and James Bones Braithwaite finished 52nd overall in a hastily built and prepped Ford Fiesta after the Hunter family and friends rallied round to get her back on her wheels.

Speaking of heroic efforts what about Kenny (Big Dread) Watt and Gail Whyte finishing 80th overall in ‘Wee Red’, Kenny’s awfy standard looking wee Leyland Mini. It was Gail’s first time co-driving on Mull which was daunting enough but the thing that puzzles me is how ‘Big Dread’ fits inside ‘Wee Red’? Either the wee Mini is the original working prototype for the Tardis or it’s just plain and simple magic!

As for Team Browns, can we just ignore Doug and Dan’s impressive 16th overall finish and concentrate on Linda’s 83rd finish at close of play. Ater two non-Mull finishes in her Fiesta ST, she and Kevin MacIver romped around the island to make it third time lucky in her Vauxhall Nova. Gaun yersel lass!

Those were the lucky ones of course, 40 crews failed to reach the Finish under the Beatson’s arch in Tobermory and that included North Yorkshire’s finest (although I’m not sure what he’s the finest of) Curly (Toot Toot) Haigh and Sally Peacock in the venerable (ancient?) Mk1 Escort and Owen ‘The Boy’ Paterson who barely got started when the Subaru suffered fuel problems at the pre-rally shakedown and then died completely on Saturday morning putting him and Clare Fraser out of the running. Still there is nothing quite like a session in Mull’s many bars to soothe the after rally blues and aid the recuperation ready for another visit next year, eh?

As for me, I was elsewhere, but I was still able to raise a glass and send some smoke signals to friends past and present. Maybe next year, eh?

Rally - Missing on Mull

Sadly my big pal Jaggy won’t make it to Mull this year, family matters have curtailed his annual pilgrimage. From the Festering Piles to the Mish, from the Mac to Macgochan’s there will be no trail of alcoholic slevvers marking his wayward progress around Tobermory harbour. Similarly there will be no unearthly presence ensconced on the bottom stair at the Salen Hotel or decorating the bars in Craignure.

Of course, he’ll also miss the intoxicating whiffs emanating from Scrutineering mixed with the occasional and most welcome aroma of the all too rare Castrol R fragrance. The spectatorial mayhem at the Dervaig junction and the comforting sounds of stab mells restoring bent steering arms and twisted metal back to some semblance of their original shape at Craignure service. And ‘service’ is the word, the whole Mull Rally experience is worthy of a worshipful ecclesiastical celebration.

Those memories only eclipsed by the mellifluous cacophony of four and six cylinder aural accompaniments making their red-lining angelic mechanical music as they pound over the lochs, around Calgary and doon the Glen. There’s simply nothing to beat the sights and sounds advancing on those gathered in a certain cemetary or sitting on the clammy wall as the damp seeps through the troosers and pants and into the very bones. It’s the searchlights sweeping the skies above Glen Gorm and Loch Frisa before bursting over the crest in a furious firework display of sparks, glowing brake discs and the furious bark and bellow of angry four wheeled monsters - and Kenny Watt’s wee Mini!

As for the rogue’s gallery below, if you see any of this lot, best give them a wide berth, they’ll only lead you into trouble and serious alcoholic iniquity. A rag tag bunch the lot of them.

Oh, and by the way, stay safe out there, whether watching, marshalling or competing – because you never know what might be making that rustling sound in the heather behind you in the silence of the creeping cold autumn darkness. It might even be the lost souls of those who have gone before and destined forever to roam the hills and glens - in search of tasty spectators!

 

The Book - The Final Proof

Dear rally readers, the printer’s proofs arrived this afternoon which necessitated one final read-through of the latest tome entitled ‘ The Scottish Rally Championship 2000-2009’. A couple of things required a wee change but otherwise, good to go.

However, despite the many read-throughs the proof-readers undertook (two) and myself (countless) there might well be something we’ve missed. It happens to the best of authors, proof-readers and publishers – and even AI (Artificial Incompetence) gets things wrong - but I’ll tell you what, if some smart git comes up to me, taps me on the shoulder and engages me in conversation starting with ‘By the way, did you not notice …. ‘.

Then be warned, I will not be held responsible for the ensuing consequences, which will either be a moothfae of dandruff (Glasgow kiss) or a boot up the exhaust depending on which way the complainant is facing at the time of utterance. And who knows? Some of the attending ‘Bears’ may well take umbrage at any slight to my person!

There are a couple of folk who in the past have taken great delight in pointing out any little errors that may have crept in to the narrative or style and to them I would advise extreme caution in their approach and choice of words. If they are not careful, even the nearest faraway place will not be a safe haven for them! I have gone skelly-eyed reading through this umpteen times and toleration levels are extremely low.

Anyway, job done, it has now been passed to the printer and book binder to do their stuff. As things stand we are on course for an early November launch but I will keep you appraised of date and location if you fancy attending the ‘official’ launch – in its now customary salubrious surrounding!

Copies of the first two books are still available:

https://fife-motor-sports-agency.square.site/

 

Book - Frazzled, but pleased

The last ten days have been pretty hectic. Yesterday I signed off the draft of the text and photograph layout for the next book, ‘The Scottish Rally Championship 2000-2009’ and that was the fifth draft!

David the designer didn’t know anything about rallying when we started this two years ago – he does now! But why five drafts you may wonder? The first draft is a rough layout with all the print and photographs with captions in place but the printer uses a system of ‘flow-text’. Each page is a template and the idea is you just paste, or ‘flow’ the whole text into the template. Fine in theory but when you start to add tables and photographs the text automatically adjusts itself but every time you add something, the ‘flow’ simply expands and you end up with ‘orphan’ words or jumbles where the text flows over a column, caption or heading.

David can manage this quite well but often needs someone who knows a bit about rallying and its technicalities to help him out and since he doesn’t know any one in the sport but me, he has little choice in the matter. So the first draft was tweaked and made to fit but that still upset a few lines and paragraphs in the second draft. There were fewer changes for the third draft and even fewer for the fourth and then I switched around some photos! Grrr! At least he’s still talking to me but the final draft has now been signed off.

Next step is the preparation of the printing plates from which I will get a finished copy of the book as it will appear in print, but not bound – it will come as a number of separate sheets with eight pages on each! That means another read through this weekend just to make sure that there have been no slip-ups when etching the plates.

It may sound awfy pernickety but that’s the nature of the task. David and Craig (the printer) know that and it’s a similar process for other books which they produce so I’m not their most difficult customer. Of course it would have been easier if I had sought a publishing company and just handed them the text and the foties but I wouldn’t have had the same control.

Anyway, that is where we’re at and hopefully still on course for publishing the new book in early November. Naturally I’ll keep you informed of the exact date.

As for the cover, well the decision has been made. The choice of Ken Wood for the 1980s book was dead easy, he won the title three times in that decade. Similarly the choice of Brian Lyall was equally appropriate for the 1990s as he uniquely won both the Scottish and ANCRO National Championship titles in the same year, 1997.

However, this latest book caused a wee bit of a headache. Two drivers each won the Scottish Championship twice during this ten year 2000s period, so which one to choose? Or should I put both pics on the front cover? As things turned out the choice was once again staring me in the face, it was just so bluidy obvious. Dohhhh!

Anyway, we’ll soon find out if you all agree – or not!!