With this year’s Snowman Rally just a few days away now, it brought to mind another Snowman Rally – exactly 40 years ago! The following tale first appeared in a certain columnist’s reminiscences in a February 2010 edition of ‘Motorsport News’. It read as follows:
““ It was 25 years ago this year in 1985 that a 17 year old assortment of gangly limbs and unkempt hair went rallying. First of all, he did a couple of events as co-driver with his ‘Uncle Shooey’ Steele and ‘Rockers’ Gray – and then he got his driving licence. He got two events in as a driver before the season closed. He crashed on both, but finished one of them.
Armed with this 50% finishing record he went to the opening round of the 1986 Esso Scottish Rally Championship, the Ladbroke Snowman Rally in Inverness.
It was next weekend’s forthcoming Snowman Rally, once again the opening round of our national series, that reminded me of this auspicious occasion. In that year of ’86, seven stages had been planned, but two were cancelled because of snowdrifts, although a third was saved after some strenuous 4x4 activity.
Seeded at 105 in the 134 car entry was ‘our hero’ in a wee red Talbot Sunbeam. People took little notice of the youngster at first, and many wondered why Ian Grindrod was co-driving for this ‘unknown’. In fact seeing Grindrod without Jim McRae was like seeing Shep without John Noakes, or Ant without Dec, but therein lies the reason. He was co-driving for ‘son of Jim’, Colin.
Colin had never driven on snow before but on the first stage he passed three cars, on the second he spun and just passed two. He caught and passed two more in the third test and two more on the fourth. On the fifth a brake pipe burst and dumped its fluid. He finished 27th that day and went on to finish 18th overall in the 1986 Scottish Championship – in a 1600cc Sunbeam!
But proving that rallying is an incestuous sport, Barrie Lochhead was also competing on that same Snowman Rally in a similar Sunbeam. He finished 34th before hanging up his helmet and donning his welding gloves to service for Colin. It was a task that kept him just as busy between events as it did during them. It must have seemed like painting the Forth Rail Bridge at times. No sooner was the Sunbeam straight and shiny, than it was bent and battered once again.
In another stroke of coincidence, Derek Ringer was also contesting that Snowman in his Clan Crusader as a driver. He finished 78th but at the end of the rally had to be lifted out of the car. He and his co-driver had lost the windscreen early on and had borrowed ski goggles. They were like two white frosted fish fingers by the finish, and literally put the word ‘snowman’ into the Snowman Rally.
Also competing that day was Colin’s first regular co-driver, Nicky Jack, who was driving an Opel Kadett and he finished in 91st place. Perhaps it was obvious to both he and Derek that their rallying talents lay elsewhere!
I’ll be thinking of those good times as I head north once again next week.””
Speaking of ‘Motorsport News’ there may be a bit of good news on the near horizon. I hear they have been ‘consulting’ with other journalists (not me!) as the new owner is keen to bring back the ‘clubman (clubperson?) element’ to the weekly paper.
Fingers crossed, eh?
More tales from times past here:
https://fife-motor-sports-agency.square.site/
