Rally - Cauld white stoor

Not that I want to give next week’s visitors to the ‘real’ North (as opposed to Mr Burnham’s vision of ‘the north’) the heebie jeebies ahead of their arrival, but it’s better to arrive informed than turn up in ignorance, is it not? For those in the deep south more used to heatwaves, it might just be advisable to pack a set of snow tyres and frostbite lotion alongside the sunscreen and slicks ahead of next weekend’s Voly Grampian Rally, 7/8 August.

Whilst some folk (who live closer to France than Scotland) have been sweltering in above 20 degree heat there are tales up here of hungry polar bears marauding the outskirts of remote settlements. Rest assured there is one thing that Scotland has plenty of, and that’s weather – of all varieties, and often seen in the same day!

For instance, the Granite City Rally of 1983 was a case in point. Where folk expected sandy, gritty clouds of kicked-up stoor, as defined in last week’s FB post, they were greeted with the icy white variety which fell from the heavens 

Back then, when four wheel drive was a novelty, Darryl Weidner and Doug Hart won the Granite City Rally in their Audi quattro with a time of 87 minutes 23 seconds for the 16 stage, 80 mile route. But possibly with the ‘drive of the day’, George Marshall and Ken Wilson in their Vauxhall Chevette finished second only 16 seconds behind the flying turbo tractor.

In third place was the Ford Escort of David Llewellin/Martin James ahead of the Escort of Terry Pankhurst/Roger Freeman and the Opel Ascona 400 of Phil Collins/Stuart Harrold. Rounding off the top six were Allan Arneil and David Cannon in another Escort 

Don’t believe me? The pictures tell their own tales and show Allan Arneil, Hugh Munro, Ivor Clark, Mike Stuart and Wilson Girvan.

Welcome to the true North!

#ScottishRally #RallyWeekend #GrampianRally
#MotorsportBooks
https://fife-motor-sports-agency.square.site/

Rally - World Class Stoor

Excitement is building ahead of this year’s Voly Grampian Rally on the 7/8 August and rightly so. Ahead of next year’s anticipated WRC visit, this year’s Scottish Rally Championship counter is attracting interest from much further afield with some of the top international teams sending crews to what was once the UK oil capital – before the politicians started to interfere!

And in a bid to make the newcomers feel right at home, the north east has its own over abundance of top quality stoor. That is the ‘rightful’ north east, the one with Peterhead and Aberdeen and not Newcastle Upon Tyne and Middlesbrough, but I digress, the recent Acropolis Rally featured Greek ‘stoor’ but Scottish stoor is a far superior grade. It is comprised of a very fine strain of celtic grush which is not as cloying and gritty as furrin stuff. That is down to centuries of hie’lan coos hoofing across the landscape, water from illicit stills cascading over the rocks, porridge eaters tramping across the ground, redcoat footsoldiers marching over the hills and glens and the spillage of blood, snot and other fluids which acted as a grinding paste on the Scottish granite. It is however a grade much favoured by the Scottish midge which can safely take to the air when the stoor is flying!

So visitors can be assured of a warm and welcoming reception when they arrive in the north east to sample the local forest fayre as demonstrated here on the 1982 Granite City Rally by the Vauxhall Chevette of Terry Kaby and Rob Arthur, the Opel Ascona of Bill Dobie and Dilys Rogers and catching the dust of the car ahead is the Talbot Sunbeam of Robin Eyre-Maunsell and Peter Scott. As for the final pic, that’s the Ford Escort of Darryl Weidner and John Parker disappearing into the distance followed by a tasty plume of stoor!

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

Other pictures of stoor are available and can be posted here if required by other explorers, missionaries and rally fans!

 

Rally - Sign of the times?

 A daring daylight robbery took place at this year's RSAC Rally at Dalbeattie. Somebody nicked one of the books off the display in the Book-tique. That's a first in three years of attending rallies and car shows. I was just more surprised than angry when I noticed. I wonder how much it will be to install CCTV !!!

 

 

Rally - at the RSAC

 Face in the crowd - an interested bystander !

Rally Raising the standard

 Just spotted a new flag pole - wonder if Jas P Wilson would do me a deal. The man in the moon would even see my flag !!

Rally - Dalbeattie

 The calm before the stoor !!!

Rally - Booktique open

 Open for business .... Methinks I need some form of flutterising device for my poor wee flag. There's not a breath of wind here at Dalbeattie for the RSAC Rally today. Or maybe I should invest in a bugle to call the opening hours ??

Book-tique on tour

Didn’t make it to Dalbeattie today (Friday) for the RSAC Scottish Rally but will be there tomorrow (Saturday 18th) and hope to be on site before the first sparrowfart of the day. Don’t know where the Book-tique will be set up, so lift your eyes skywards and look for the red chequered flag if you’re after some books!

I’ve still got some posters left. In fact I sold three from the back door of the hoose over the past couple of weeks to folk who were worried I’d be sold out before this weekend – because, once they’re gone, they’re gone! And dinnae try tae order one on line – they’re too big to post – personal collection only!

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

 

 

 

Book - Making progress

 Spent the day yesterday in deepest Berwickshire with the proof-readers for the next book in the series, ‘The Scottish Rally Championship 2010-2019’. Once I had been attacked by umpteen tail-wagging, lugs flapping wee dugs we sat down at the table to go through the draft, all 130,000 words of it! Susan checks my grammar (fewer queries this year, yee haa!) while Rodger checks the content (he kens more about rallying than I do!) and we didnae argue – too much!

Compounding this week’s workload, Alistair sent me a further selection of foties and as I’ve said so often before, it’s easy to pick what goes into the book, not so easy which ones to leave out because I’ve run out of space. Always a difficult task. The adverts are also starting to come in although I have room for one more if anyone is interested. There is a strict limit on advertising because I don’t want the book to look like a catalogue but it sure helps with the overall quality of the publication. And in case you hadn’t noticed, all the advertisers so far have a distinct connection with Scottish rallying – nae ootsiders!

Anyway, progress is being made.

One extra wee thing though. Having survived the en-route Edinburgh By-Pass stationery car park quite successfully yesterday morning I had time in hand before my appointment so stopped at Chirnside to visit the church cemetery and pay my respects. There are actually two headstones there because the World Champ lies beside his parents beside the wall at the north side of grounds and both graves looked well tended with fresh flowers. There’s also a wooden bench there for a wee seat and contemplation.

Anyway I was sitting there lost in thought when a head popped over the wall: “Have you seen a black labrador running about?” The head belonged to an elderly gent looking for his dog so we were having a nice wee chat when he asked if I would you like to see the photos? A few moments later his wife appeared with an envelope of personal photographs from happier times past and her own record of later sad events.

It was one of those poignant little moments that will live long in the memory. Grace’s clear voice and perfectly polite lilting diction recalling personal past memories of life and connections in this quiet part of the country. An absolutely lovely and very charming lady sharing her personal memories of a still revered world-wide personality. Thank you Grace.

 

Rally - Changed Days

40 years ago a gallant wee red Talbot Sunbeam Ti made it’s ‘international’ rallying debut on the 1986 Lloyds Bowmaker RSAC Scottish Rally. The car and crew didn’t finish, but the car made an immediate impact, not just on the scenery, but on spectators and the media. A star was born!

Back then the 3 day Glasgow based event contained 39 Special Stages and the winner’s time was 3 hours 54 minutes and 27 seconds! Driving their Peugeot 205 T16, Mikael Sundstrom and Voitto Silander finished the rally over 6 minutes clear of the Ford RS200 of Mark Lovell and Roger Freeman, although it could have ended differently had the Ford not broken its gearbox on the very first stage! Bjorn Waldegard and Fred Gallagher were third in the Toyota Celica Turbo but the event will be remembered for another reason. The only MG Metro 6R4 to finish was the David Gillanders/Graham Neish car, all the others succumbed to the dust including those of Jim McRae and Malcolm Wilson.

It’s also worth noting that Louise Aitken-Walker and Ellen Morgan finished 6th in the Nissan 240RS while the only other Scot in the top ten was George Marshall, with Lyn Jenkins, in the private Nissan 240RS finishing 10th.

This weekend the RSAC Scottish Rally once again takes to the woods, but this time, the one day event on Saturday 18th July will be contained entirely in and around the motor sporting hotbed of Dalbeattie in the south west corner of Scotland.

Situated just to the south of the town, the expansive yard of the agricultural and forestry machinery manufacturing company of ‘Jas P Wilson’ will once again host the arrival and Scrutineering of cars on Friday and provide home to the rally service crews as they set up ‘camp’ to tend their charges on Saturday. Along with the stages the service area is always well worth a visit but just don’t get too close to the crews if they’re busy – you might inadvertently learn some new adjectives!

Spectator Info and Entry List:
https://www.scottishrally.co.uk/spectator-viewing-areas/
https://www.scottishrally.co.uk/entry-list/

That top ten looks pretty fierce but don’t just concentrate on them. If the number 11 seed local driver Martyn Erskine his has dayglo orange crocs in ‘sports’ mode he’ll be worth a watch as will the number 12 seed, Mike Stuart in the Mk1, and he’s followed by “they don’t make the roads wide enough” Chris Collie and he’ll be chased by ex motor cycle racing champ John Crawford – now on 4 wheels! In other words, spectators will be spoiled for choice this Saturday.

Also making an appearance at the 'Jas P Wilson' yard will be the mobile ‘Book-tique’ so if you want more tales and pics from the past, get yourself a book, or three! And if you can’t make it in person, the books are available on-line:
https://fife-motor-sports-agency.square.site/

 

Striding out

Instead of heading to Dalbeattie next week for the RSAC Scottish Rally (18th July) the 1989 and 1990 Scottish Rally Champion Co-Driver (when he was nowt but a lad!) Campbell Roy will be setting out this weekend on Saturday 11th July from Kirk Yetholm in the south east corner of Scotland to travel 540 miles north westwards to Cape Wrath.

Despite being of an age to hold a Bus Pass, Campbell has chosen to walk! And this is where his map reading skills of old will come into play as he will be following the ‘Scottish National Trail’ across moors, through glens, over rivers and round (and over!) mountains to raise funds for ‘Prostate Cancer Research’. Although he’s been involved over the years in other charities, working as a volunteer, this is his own idea and his own fund raising venture.

From Kirk Yetholm in the south east corner of Scotland the 540 mile trek will take him via Jedburgh past Ratho on the south west side of Edinburgh before heading west via Kirkintilloch and Dumgoyne to the north of Glasgow. From there the route starts to get a bit more serious heading through Aberfoyle and Callander into Perthshire, then on to Kingussie and Fort Augustus. Kinlochewe is the next marker before crossing over Assynt and the final push towards Cape Wrath and the Finish Line which he’s aiming to reach on the 26th September – some 47 days after setting out!

By the way if anyone wants to join him they will be most welcome, even if it is only for one section of the route, or a start or finish on any day, and the FULL itinerary and timetable is listed on the website along with other details on how to support the cause and donate to it, see below:

https://www.prostate-cancer-research.org.uk/trek-500/

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61589500706454

#trek500

Mind you, if anyone has a genuine mountain-trained big St Bernard dug with a wee keg round its neck containing a certain restorative liquid inside and chanced upon this intrepid wanderer somewhere along the trail then I’m sure it would go down well !!