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 !!

Look back at Moffat

Didn’t manage to get any real atmospheric or close-up foties at the Moffat Classic Car Show on Sunday because I was kept kinda busy all day, not so much selling stuff, but catching up and chatting with lots of visitors. At one point I thought I should maybe give up writing and selling books and just sell old posters and stickers! But dinnae worry, I’ve still got some posters left so they’ll be at the RSAC Scottish Rally next month, 18th July – just look for the red Transit (and the red and white chequered flag fluttering above it) in Jas P Wilson’s yard in Dalbeattie on the day of the rally.

Amongst the visitors, and delighted to see him (not just because he bought a book!), was Lee Hastings. He had a wee bit of a health scare a couple of weeks back and there he was, as large as life and as fit as a Kwik-Fit Fitter’s dancer teacher, and took great pleasure in making my blood creep describing his operation. Apparently he had two stents fitted, but they were inserted into his wrist and somehow were made to travel up his arm and into his chest where they were needed and then the devices were ‘inflated’ to fix the problems. Seems to me some of these surgeon folks would make good rally navigators if they can direct a couple of tiny objects safely and accurately through the maze of veins and capillaries, and past corpuscles and all manner of things in the human bloodstream, to precisely hit the target. And when you think of Lee and what he has subjected his body to over the years, that’s no mean feat!

George Rutherford, who emigrated some time ago from Galloway to Carlisle, stopped by with a bag of gold dust which included some real nuggets - FULL sets of rally results from the early 1970s. Not just top sixes or top tens, the full hand-written and typed lists with stage times! That’s what makes attending these classic shows so valuable, meeting up with auld stagers and finding out what they have got stashed away in their attics and garages. So that’s going to fill some gaps in the next book!

Ivor Clark was there with Keith McCleary having brought cars for the rally car display and Ivor, as usual, was full of chat and mysterious goings-on back at ‘Ivor’y Towers. And a driver I hadn’t seen for years turned up, Kenny Nairn whose star rose very quickly 50 years ago then disappeared abruptly when the call of farm life forced him to concentrate on coos rather than cars! And speaking of quick rally drivers, gentleman James Rae the 1970 and ’72 Scottish Rally Champion popped his head round the display, had a good look through the sample books (but didnae buy ony!) and had a bit of craic before heading off on his regal saunter round the three fields with over 700 cars and motor cycles entered and on show.

Speaking of motorised two-wheelers the inimitable Mose Hutchinson, he of the kilt, no knickers and green wellies trendsetting fashion style, poked his head round the corner of the van at close of play. Most of you four-wheelers will never have of him but Mose is part of Scotland’s motor cycle sporting fabric. An absolute bundle of non-stop energy concerning all things bike. If you’ve got 5 or 10 minutes to stop and chat with him, forget it, you’ll lose at least an hour, if not two.

And yes that figure of over 700 vehicles on display was no exaggeration. The Moffat Show just gets bigger and bigger each year but the joint Moffat & DMC and the Galloway MCC organising team have got it down to a fine art although it must take days to measure up all the pitches and divide up the areas to accommodate all the classes and exhibits. The show also continues to attract more visitors and tourists. Iain Wilson said it took him an hour to get from the roundabout at the M74 to the showground at Moffat – a distance of less than a mile and a half!

But if I could offer a word of advice to the organisers for next year, they’ll need to book more loos. From around 11.00am till 2.30pm the queues at the two sets of portaloos which I saw were never ending with increasing numbers of fidgeting, cross-knee’d folk hinging-oan for dear life just hoping they would get to the door before nature took over.

Now, for those of you who didn’t manage to get there, you can still buy the books on-line, but I repeat, no orders will be taken for the posters (too much hassle!), those one-offs are first come first served:

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

Early arrivals

 

Moffat Classic Car Show

 Happy Dreichday .... Those words were carefully chosen here at the Moffat Classic Car Show today, 28th June. 'Happy' because the place is filling up with glorious machinery and 'Dreich' because it's kinda damp. That's because here in Scotland it never rains, we just wash the fresh air frequently! Mind you there is a drying cycle between the washes and rinses, and the forecast reckons there will be more drying cycles this afternoon. Fingers crossed. So the Book-tique is now open for business selling books and posters, and I've also found a stock of old rally stickers, so we'll see how those go.

 

Treasure Trove

When they’re gone, they’re gone! …. Guess what I found when clearing out the old shed? Some distant memories from years gone by, 32 years ago to be more precise. Back then Burmah Petroleum was a relatively new sponsor for the Scottish Rally Championship and were getting awfy enthusiastic about their sponsorship. Founded in Edinburgh in 1909, Burmah Petroleum was indeed a Scottish oil company, one of the first, and when approached to sponsor the national series after Esso’s 13 year tenure came to an end they jumped in with both feet. Sadly it all came to an end rather too quickly. Just a year later some internal re-structuring of the company saw their Head Office relocated to Swindon beside associate company Castrol and their ties with Scotland broken.

Anyway, one of the ideas was to produce a series of posters which could be placed inside the advertising ‘A’ boards at their filling stations around the country, and these could be rotated with other advertising campaigns whenever a round of the national series was due to hit the filling stations’ local area. They may well have over-ordered their first batch because I found a large round tub right at the back of the shed!

Inside the tub were a tight roll of posters. I have no idea how many there are, and I’m certainly not going to drag them out to count them! The posters are huge – 2 feet wide and just over 3 feet tall, or A1 size if you ken the professional term! They are printed on good thick paper as well, top quality job!

I plan to take them to the Moffat Show this coming weekend and the Book-tique will be there on Sunday 28th June from show opening to closing and I’ll be flogging them off at a fiver a time. If I’ve got any left I’ll take the rest to the RSAC Scottish Rally on the 18th of July. And no, I’m not taking orders or posting them out – I wouldn’t know how to package them safely!

I’ve actually got a smaller copy of the original artwork – but I’m keeping that for myself! So if anyone is interested in decorating their man-cave, study, office or garage, just remember first come, first served – and once they’re gone, they’re gone!!

Photo shows an actual poster – striking, eh?