The Visit !

 A rather special visitor dropped by the book-tique this morning for a wee chat about the good old days.

Lombard Rally Festival at Drumlanrig

 Steady stream of rally cars arriving on trailers and inside wheeled boxes, lots of weel kent faces amongst them and the chuck wagons are busy already. Let's see what the day brings.

Rally Galloway

After the furious fighting frenzy of last weekend’s Jim Clark and Reivers Rallies at Duns, this weekend sees a more ‘gentle’ approach to the sport of rallying with Drumlanrig Castle hosting their first ever Lombard Rally Festival. That’s not to say that Drumlanrig knows nothing about rallying, because the estate has actually hosted some competitive single-venue rallies in the past.

However this coming weekend, Saturday and Sunday 30th and 31st May, the organisers of the annual and hugely successful ‘Lombard Bath Rally Festival’, and other such festivals around the country, are coming to Dumfries & Galloway with their rally road show.

Mixing rally stars from past and present with rally cars from past and present, this exciting spectacle will feature a variety of front wheel, rear wheel and four wheel drive cars driven by current and past drivers on the specially designed ‘Rally Stage’ within the castle grounds.

The organisers of these festivals always have a few surprises up their sleeves and who knows what will be on the menu this weekend. From a three cylinder, one litre Volkswagen CitiGo to an eight cylinder, 6 litre Vauxhall Firenza – just don’t stand near the exhaust when the big beast gets fired up!

The big attraction of an event such as this is that spectators can get up close to the drivers and cars and find out what the sport is all about. Amongst the entry list are some Ecosse Junior 1000 rally cars. These cars are used in the 14 to 17 year old young driver category and provides the ideal first step into the sport even if the youngster isn’t yet old enough to hold a driving licence. Once the road licence age has been reached, the next step up might involve one of the various one-make challenges, like the more budget friendly MG3 Challenge, where modifications are limited and the competition is closer. And there should be a couple of these cars at Drumlanrig this weekend.

However, it is the ‘big bangers’ which will attract most attention from Ford Escorts and Subaru Imprezas, to an MG Metro 6R4 and Ford RS200, and keep a special eye out for one car in particular – it has two engines, one at the back and one at the front!

And although this isn’t a proper rally as such, just don’t try and tell any of the drivers that, once the green light signals ‘Go’ you can bet your little racing booties that it will be foot to the floor all the way. Just stand well back. And on that note, although spectators are welcome please listen to and adhere to the Marshals’ instructions.

And if you do want any more information on Scottish rallying you could always stop by the ‘Book-tique’ and buy a copy of the ‘Scottish Rally Championship’ books which will provide some entertaining and educational insight into the sport in Scotland, with info and photos on a young Colin McRae’s career amongst others.

For more information on the event, see Facebook page:

FB page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61580768099138

 

Rally - When men were boys

A few pics from the 1985 Jim Clark Rally. a lifetime ago, or to be more precise, 41 years since the roads were gravel ! And there's more such piccies in the books !!

Rally - Calm before the Storm

Although the Book-tique will be at the Jim Clark Reivers Rally this coming Sunday 24th, it won’t be there on Saturday 23rd and will only be there on Friday 22nd if some folk wish to avail themselves of some entertaining and informative reading! So if you are looking for books before heading home after the Friday/Saturday event best let me know beforehand - I can be contacted via DM on FB if interested.

This non-appearance on the Saturday is due to the refusal to issue a domestic Pass for Saturday as there is a holiday weekend shortage of the official Carers normally required to accompany a certain personage on extra curricular duties!

However, the reason this offer is being made for a Friday visit is that a couple of our visitors from the far south, even beyond Carlisle and Coldstream, have expressed interest in acquiring some copies of the ‘Scottish Rally Championship’ books as they believe these tomes of deeds past and gory forest descriptions have an educational value and will be helpful in knowing what awaits rally folks in the North East of Scotland in August later this year and for the WRC visitors next year.

Given the interest being expressed by our furrin cousins it is indeed fortuitous that these books feature a ‘Glossary’ at the back to help protect their Anglian innocence from the celtic candour of the Scottish vernacular. Apparently there are still some fresh and virtuous souls out there who don’t understand what glaur and stoor are, let alone cowped and gubbed, so this helpful addition to the books will prove a godsend no doubt.

The book-tique will therefore be open for business all day Sunday in the Reivers Rally Service Area, and if required, on Friday in the same place – look for the red-chequered flag!

And if you fail to make a personal visitation you can always buy the books on line:

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

Also available on Ebay – search for ‘Scottish Rally Championship’ Books

#rallyscotland

#motorsportbooks

 

Rally - Shrinkflation

Of course I blame the Government, Trumpland, the oil companies, the gas and electric companies, the greedy big supermarkets, the crooks that run the Water Boards, the bigger crooks who work in Stock Exchanges and Banks – we all same to be paying more for poorer quality, smaller quantities and worse service.

And so it seems, it has come to this. Signalling the end of civilisation as we know it, this quality of life draining process has wound its way down to Rhona’s tablet. Anyone involved in the Ecosse Junior 1000 Rally Championship series will know only too well of the invigorating and restorative properties of the sweet and sugary substance known as Rhona’s tablet and available in the big tin to all who frequent the Ecosse Junior marquee at rallies. A Scottish delicacy famed far and wide, and yet it too has seemingly been afflicted by the curse of shrinkflation, the cost of ingredients being driven ever upwards by the greedy and uncaring.

Where once this home made succulence was mouthful and chunky, it is but a shadow of its former self. Not so much a ‘sugar fix’ as a ‘sugar tickle’!

We’re doomed, we’re all doomed !!

 

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