Rally - Faster and Furiouser

What a grand day at Kames yesterday for the Mayfield Garage Services Kames Rally, what the track lacks in length it more than makes up for in interest and complexity and the best of it is that spectators can see almost the whole stage from the grass banking. At times there were up to four cars on track at any one time and the eyes simply couldn’t keep up with the action.

Graham Bruce and David Aitken eventually won the day by 30 seconds from Ross Fernie and Bryan Hamilton with Wily Willie Pollock and John Marshall safe in third - but they were only one second behind watching the mayhem play out ahead of them. Alister Watson got off to a slow start on the first two stages with a sick Escort, which was quickly fixed only to retire later, followed by Colin Gemmell who withdrew when the VW’s transfer ‘box failed, Billy McClelland was penalised for an overshoot and Steven Street was up for the fight but retired on the final stages. Mind you he had one of those wild fishtailing ‘spectator-step-back-quick’ moments on the fifth stage and how he got away with it, providence only knows!

Peter O’Neill and Alfie Letham finished fourth, and didn’t they make that wee 1600cc Nova dance, and Cole Hastings was in the top ten in that raucous Honda engined MG till the final stage. He says it revs to 9,500, I think he’s being awfy modest!

Top Ten:
1, Graham Bruce/David Aitken (Ford Escort Mk2) 19m 49s
2, Ross Fernie/Bryan Hamilton (Subaru Impreza sti) 20m 19s
3, William Pollock/John Marshall (Ford Escort Mk2) 20m 20s
4, Peter O’Neill/Alfie Letham (Vauxhall Nova) 20m 25s
5, Stephen Donnelly/Rian Walker (Ford Escort RS1800) 20m 27s
6, Peter McCallum/Stephen Clark (Ford Escort) 20m 45s
7, Duncan Ferguson/Jamie McQue (Vauxhall Chevette HS) 21m 02s
8, David Telfer/Hayden Brown (Ford Escort Mk2) 21m 05s
9, Shane Collins/Greg Halfpenny (Ford Fiesta Rally 4) 21m 07s
10, Graeme Rintoul/Jim Rintoul (Ford Fiesta ST) 21m 07s

In the Ecosse Junior 1000 event William Paterson and Mark McCulloch were having a right old ding dong with McKenzie Snowden and Rob Fagg till the blue Skoda simply fell over and landed on its roof. It was one of those two-wheeling, will-it, won’t-it hairpin moments, but it did. Even so Snowden’s winning margin over James McLaughlan and Andrew Blackwood was only two seconds, and they were only two seconds up on third placed Gregor Reid and Simon Mills! How close was that?

Top Ten:
1, McKenzie Snowden/Rob Fagg (VW UP!) 22m 05s
2, James McLaughlan/Andrew Blackwood (VW UP!) 22m 07s
3, Gregor Reid/Simon Mills (Seat Mii) 22m 09s
4, Lion Koffman/Richard Stewart (Skoda Citigo) 22m 13s
5, Ollie Poole/Richard Simmonds (Seat Mii) 22m 18s
6, Zak Furber/Chloe Fleming (Skoda Citigo) 22m 26s
7, Rhys Purvin/Barry Young (VW UP!) 22m 43s
8, Charlie Kelso/Jon Hawkins (Citroen C1) 22m 50s
9, April Blair/Eilidh Williamson (Skoda Citigo) 22m 57s
10, Gregor Beatson/Craig Wallace (Skoda Citigo) 23m 35s