Rally - The Perfect Day

The sun shone, the crowds gathered and the cars performed. Yesterday’s ‘Be More Colin’ Superstage event lived up to its name, it was a super day out. A get-together of lads and lassies mixed with auld gits galore and shiny metal in a celebration of a life lost and yet lived to the full. Mind you, what was intended to be a fun day out suddenly got awfy serious when that wee green light winked on at the start line of the day’s eight stages around Cooper Park in Elgin. What a stramash, eh?

The fight at the front was a fierce and furious affair between the Fords of Scott Mutch and David Bogie with the outcome not being settled till the final stage when Scott and Greg McDonald just pipped David and Daniel Forsyth for the win by 0.9 of second! But surely the star of the show was Alan Scott, with Shaina Archibald, in the wee MG ZR which buzzed and flew roon the public park. Looked at in daylight the 1600cc front wheel drive machine was only a second per stage slower than the mighty Ford badged monsters ahead of him.

In fourth place were Johnnie Mackay and Orrin McDonnell in the Mitsubishi, once they had found their way out of the car park that is, ignoring the ‘way out’ and ‘exit’ signs they left the service area for the rally start by leaving through the entrance. And it’s a good job the rally stage was only on the other side of the road otherwise they might not have found that either!

Nick Runcie behaved himself to finish fifth in a ‘borrowed’ Mike Moates Subaru Impreza with Michael Coutts on board, although I’m not sure if that was air escaping from a punctured tyre in the Moates’ camp or just a huge collective sigh of relief that the Subaru was returned intact! Rounding off the top six was another 1600cc motor, the Peugeot 206 of ‘Dangerous’ Des Campbell with Dawn Henderson hurling the poor wee thing roon the park like a peerie oan the end of a wean’s whip (ask yer parents).

And then there were those who didn’t. Paddy Munro was his usual effervescent self but only after the first stage. An ECU in the Escort ‘tripped’ and the car lapsed into ‘road mode’ and it took him ages to think what the fault was. Alison Horne lost out when a driveshaft in the MINI broke but wee brother Adam saved family honour by finishing 12th – and he beat his faither, so that will make breakfast in the Horne hoose interesting this morning.

Brett MacKenzie also lost out with a failed driveshaft although with the tender administration of a 14lb hammer the offending item was gently persuaded to ‘slide’ back into place. Liam Wood’s Fiesta ST smacked a kerb hard breaking two wheels and a hub and yet the team didnae give in. They set to sourcing replacements and making repairs and within half an hour the wee car was back on all four wheels. Sterling stuff.

And what about young Martin Gillespie, sat his BARS just weeks ago, and entered his first rally at the wheel of his self-built Corsa SRi. I say ‘self-built’ but whit a team effort that was building the car from scratch in two months! The wee car just looked a jewel sat there in the sun yesterday at the rally start. And not only did he finish, he and Sean Devine were 20th overall just behind the Nova of Mike Moates and Gary McDonald. Just when you start to worry about the future of the sport along comes a truckload of youthful enthusiasm like that to put a smile back on your face.

Of course there were many, many other tales to be told and shared and one can only hope that someone looking down from above fair enjoyed the frolics.

Top Ten:
1, Scott Mutch/Greg McDonald (Ford Escort Mk2) 9m 20.7s
2, David Bogie/Dan Forsyth (Ford Escort Mk2) 9m 21.6s
3, Alan Scott/Shaina Archibald (MG ZR) 9m 30.0s
4, Johnnie Mackay/Orrin McDonnell (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo7) 9:34.3
5, Nick Runcie/Michael Coutts (Subaru Impreza) 9m 44.9s
6, Des Campbell/Dawn Henderson (Peugeot 206) 9m 47.5s
7, Iain MacDonald/Laura Dawson (Peugeot 106) 9m 48.1s
8, Doug Weir/Stevie Brown (Ford Escort Mk2) 9m 48.7s
9, Ben MacDowall/John Shepheard (BMW130i) 9m 55.0s
10, Euan MacKay/Chelle Hunter (Peugeot 106) 9m 55.1s

Be More Colin Superstage

 Open for business! Tight for space here in the main service area for the 'Be More Colin' Superstage event in Elgin, so no room for the wee marquee. The stage itself is just a short stroll away in Cooper Park beside the half built or half demolished Elgin Cathedral, what a shame. All that scaffolding around it, still I think it will be finished quicker than a new CalMac ferry, eh?

Book-tique on Tour

 …. and so it begins. The mobile book-tique will make its first appearance this year at the ‘Be More Colin’ Superstage event in Elgin on Friday and Saturday 24/25 April. It was supposed to make its debut at the Snowman Rally a few weeks back, but it wasn’t to be, so this weekend marks its most northern appearance to date! So if all you folks in the far north haven’t yet purchased a copy of the ‘Scottish Rally Championship’ books then here’s your chance!

The plan is to park the red Ford Transit Custom in the main Service area so that rally fans will be able to find it rather than set up in the spectators enclosures, because the casual spectator won’t be interested in such an informative and entertaining tome – only the diehards. And to help you find the van, look for the flag pole with the red and white chequered flag fluttering in the breeze or hanging limply in the mild Spring air!

There are three books in total (the fourth is underway) each covering a separate decade – 1980-89, 1990-99 and 2000-2009. There is a separate report on each event in each championship year, plus event top ten results and class winners, and the vast majority of the photographs have not been previously published.

Working on these books has been a great joy and memory box tickler because looking back on events past is a reminder of where many of today’s and yesterday’s top Scottish rally stars started, for instance, Colin McRae in a Sunbeam, Robbie Head and David Bogie in Novas and Euan Thorburn and Garry Pearson in Peugeots and of course Jock Armstrong doing star-jumps out of his pram! Only kidding Jock – honest!

You can also look before you buy as samples will be on display.

For more information on the weekend’s activities, 63 Car Club who are organising this weekend’s rather special event in memory of a lost car club member, have published full details plus a map on their Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1423316002930665&set=a.219617156633895

The invited list of 45 competing crews will be headed by record breaking, seven times Scottish Rally Champion and current Scottish Champion David Bogie with local co-driver Daniel Forsyth and he’s bringing his glorious Ford Escort Mk2. And if you get a chance have a peek under the bunnet and lie on the flair tae have look underneath. This no ‘normal’ Mk2! And joining the Ford-fun filled fray, Bruce McCombie, Barry Groundwater and Scott Mutch have forsaken four wheel drive in favour of Escorts and they’ll be up against the likes of Andy Horne in a Hyundai i20 R5 and Johnnie Mackay and Brett MacKenzie in their Mitsubishi Lancers. And something else to tickle the earbuds, Ben McDowall’s BMW!

And then of course there is the ‘stand well back’ brigade led by Paddy Munro, ‘Dangerous’ Des Campbell, Nick Runcie and Brian ‘The Sheriff’ Watson. And no doubt bringing a tear to the eye and a tug at the heart strings will be Kenny Watt’s original wee Mini – as opposed to the German sausage tin varieties! All this and more.

Eight stages around the perimeter of Cooper Park in the centre of Elgin will feature non-stop action on Saturday from 8.55 am until 5.00 pm, with Scrutineering on Friday evening – ah cannae wait!

And if you fail to find me you can always buy the books on line:

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

#rallyscotland
#motorsportbooks

Tax, tax and tax again

Ed Moribund, the Spendthriftery of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, was on the telly again this morning telling the great British public how he was spending billions on his drive towards Net Zero.

However, methinks he has lost sight of the fact that it is the taxpayers money he’s spending, not his own. This is the guy who came to office promising to cut our annual fuel bills by £300. That has gone well hasn’t it? Ever since he took office prices have increased and increased again and the £300 promise has been replaced by a £150 promise. Meanwhile our energy costs have risen way beyond any saving he has promised. Not only that our energy bills have a ‘green levy’ imposed upon them to enable him to pursue his blinkered mission, so we’re paying even more tax.

And as for his proposed additional 'windfall tax' on the oil companies what's the betting these private utilities (they are not public utilities) will not seek other ways to recoup and protect  their profits, directors bonuses and shareholders dividends?

The saying caught between a rock and hard place springs to mind, but then nothing should surprise us any more with regard to tax levies and oil prices. The attached photograph was taken at the Jim Clark Rally way back in 2014 – remember the tanker drivers strike ??

Any excuse will do to raise prices, eh? Happy days are here again !!

Frustrations

The earlier rant on this page was born out of frustration or maybe even double frustration. Aside from the ongoing furore over what the Prime Minister knew and didn’t know there was another niggling concern. The PM has lost (sacked?) three senior Civil Servants but what BBC England (with regional opt out channels!) and other political journalists have failed to expose are the financial implications and recriminations.

Were these individuals allowed to leave with a golden handshake and a full pension, or did they lose any entitlement due to their wrongdoing? When pressed in the past government spokespersons have often refused to answer such questions “for operational reasons we cannot disclose such details” which begs the question why not?

For instance, the current scandal around the Foreign Office Chief should be of concern as that job carries a salary scale of £235,000 to £239,999, and you can bet your worn out, downtrodden little booties that he won’t be on the standard state pension when he goes! In other words, the cost of getting rid of three senior civil servants could run into millions, and of course no penalties for mismanagement or wrongdoing shall be allowed to blight their CVs.

These people are public servants paid out of the public purse so the public has a right to know how their hard earned tax contributions are spent. Compare that with how private business employers deal with their staff when things go wrong and there is a whole gamut of hoops through which they must jump and legal processes with which they have to comply, and that’s even without input from trade unions and human rightists!

It just highlights yet again the differences in a two-class society where the rules apply to some but not others

However the real reason for my distraction these days is one of frustration here in the plastic turrets of Castle Bunnet. Writing the fourth book in a series should be easier than the first three, should it not? Well, it isn’t, hence my wandering mind.

Reflecting on how the sport has changed and keeps changing, the 2000-2019 decade generated many different headlines. There were new names amongst the rally winners and new champions to celebrate including the first Scot to win both the Scottish Rally Championship title and the British Rally Championship title in the same year. Long established rallies disappeared and new ones appeared and there were changes at the top of motor sport’s governing body and more changes within the Forestry Commission. There were losses too and fatal accident inquiries following which changes had to be implemented and yet, a new Public Road Closure Bill was introduced to ease the problem of organising closed public road events.

In other words there was much to write about yet again – too much!

Having said that, the first draft of the text is just about complete and will be off to the proof-readers shortly - along with a copious supply of red ink!

And finally, if you don’t hear from me again I shall endeavour to get the word out where I have been incarcerated and give you the address where to send the cake with the file in it!

Onwards and upwards, eh?

https://fife-motor-sports-agency.square.site/
#rallyscotland
#motorsportbooks

Society and Politics

Classless society or two-class society? …. The rich, the powerful and the well-connected make up one class and then there is the rest of us. Politicians continually try to tell us that they care for the working class but they have so far failed to define what and who the working class is.

Some might suggest there is just one working class, and that includes business owners, managers, staff and employees at every level, earning a wage and paying their various taxes. Then there is the other lot, which includes business owners, entrepreneurs and other financiers who hob-nob with politicians and civil servants to reach the ‘well-connected’ status and therefore qualify to join the rich and powerful class.

And whilst there appears to a be two-tier tax payer and tax avoider system in this country there also seems to be a complimentary two tier legal system which seeks to protects the saintly from the irritating serfs!

Example. No-one from the Post Office or Fujitsu board rooms has been held to account let alone prosecuted and this from an organisation and multi-national company which were quick to judge, prosecute and incarcerate their own staff and hard working individuals when they thought their own income and profits were thought to be in danger.

Example. PPE. How many profiteers and shoddy manufacturers/suppliers have been pursued for the supply of faulty, over-priced equipment, much of which didn’t meet required standards and was unfit for use.

Example. Ajax armoured vehicles. Eight years and billions spent on a vehicle unfit for purpose and has harmed more service personnel than it has saved!

And as for the NHS, how many senior executives have been made to answer for problems when those very same individuals seek to pursue the over-worked nurses and hospital staff for poor care and medical mistakes?

Adding insult to injury, The Rt Hon. the Baroness Harman KC reckons that the triple lock pension provision should be reviewed – downwards. And this from someone who was earning a six figure salary whilst in government and has a pension which is double, treble (at least) the standard state pension. And who paid for her salary, perks and pension in the first place - those very same pensioners who paid their taxes while she was in government?

Sadly, the list goes on.

And if the Messiah And Godly Anti-christ (MAGA) from across the pond invades Greenland what’s the betting on the archangel of evil sending his convoys from Murmansk to invade and colonise the Western Isles to provide the USSR with an Atlantic seaboard and protect their own northern approaches? Is Lewis and Harris safe?

Can you imagine the kerfuffle that would instigate amongst that mixed political collective at the foot of the Royal Mile. I can just imagine the emergency deployment of the Glen Sannox with the one o’clock gun from the Edinburgh Castle battlements being mounted on the ferry’s prow to go and see off any invaders.

CalMac to the rescue, eh?

We’re doomed. We’re all doomed.

Have a nice day.

Rally - Oscar winner

Bigger than ‘Ben-Hur’, more patriotic than ‘Braveheart’ and more sweary than ‘Train-Spotting’. It also had more ice than ‘Titanic’ (with added snow) a better soundtrack than the ‘Sound of Music’ and more drama than ‘Coronation Street’ and ‘Eastenders’ combined, whilst the closing scene in the dark almost brought a tear to the eye. Even if you are not film buff place this in your ‘Must Watch’ category.

It was of course the epic tale of the ‘RAC Rally - Into the Dark’ film, starring Mike Moates, Gary McDonald and a Vauxhall Nova plus a cast of thou…, hundr… well a small but hardy band of eedji…, stalwarts, hell bent on conquering one of the last great UK motoring challenges with skill, ingenuity, tenacity, fortitude and beer, and cakes, and more beer.

On a more serious note this one hour documentary of an amateur rally crew tackling the five day 1400 mile endurance event in Winter weather was worthy of an Oscar, not just for the star cast but for the production team behind it. This was a film which brought back memories of those compulsive, informative and enjoyable Barrie Hinchliffe filmed productions in the 1970s and 80s long before the internet became a ‘thing’.

The production was professional, the interviews illuminating and the music was entirely fitting and appropriate – even if I don’t care for ‘rap’ noise! Also Steve Ryder would have been outclassed by the on-screen raconteur who popped up regularly on his ‘chaise longue’ to add couthiness and insight to the narrative.

Getting even more serious, this film deserves a wider audience. It would inform and educate the non-rallying public and should be used to stir up interest in the sport ahead of Scotland’s WRC round providing a clear contrast between clubman and professional sport. It also has educational properties and should be shown in schools, colleges and universities although the loan of the BBC ‘bleep’ machine might be an idea before younger viewers are permitted. And not just in the north east. With added sub titles it could be shown in non-Doric parts of the country!

But really the bottom line, and what was apparent in every shot, was the enjoyment, humour, fun and camaraderie of the whole team whilst capturing the spirit of the sport of rally itself.

So thank you Michael, Gary and of course Stevie Presents – ah cannae wait till the next episode.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SUMg3XnE4I

And as for the photo, Mike and Gary’s star quality (?) was spotted a long time ago, way back in 2003 – as seen in the ‘Scottish Rally Championship 2000-2009’ book !!

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

#MoatesRallyTeam #steviepresents #rallyscotland