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?

Rally - Thirty years ago

Just when you thought the MG Metro 6R4 was dead, the 1996 Weldex Rally in Argyll (forerunner of this coming weekend’s Dunoon Presents Argyll Rally, 19/20 June) proved otherwise. Of the top 12 cars which finished the seven forest stage event, eight were Ford Escort Cosworths and two were Sierra Cosworths!

The winners were Highlanders Jimmy Christie and Murdoch Campbell who finished 15 seconds clear of the George Gauld/Roy Campbell Escort Cossie and half a minute clear of the similar car of Raymond Munro/Graham Brunton. But there’s more. Andy Horne and Jim Howie had been leading the rally by 45 seconds in their own Metro going into the final stage at Ardgarten. They had a comfortable 45 second margin and were within sight of their third win of the 1996 championship series - when a wheel broke! Jimmy and Campbell couldn’t believe their eyes when they passed the stricken three-wheeled Metro stuck in a ditch.

The other two cars were of course the winning crew’s Metro and in ninth place raising a few eyebrows was the Vauxhall Astra of ‘local’ driver Jimmy Paterson with Stewart Merry – and this despite a bent rear beam!

I say ‘local’ but Jimmy was from Arrochar at the head of Loch Long, just one of talent aplenty in the county of Argyll back in the day, although Dunoon’s Bobby Youden and Ernest Cowan failed to finish the 1996 event in their new Escort Cosworth. The 1995 Scottish Champion Challenger retired on the final stage when the turbocharger failed.

Apart from Paterson it wasn’t a good day for the ‘locals’ as the Calderwood twins struck trouble. They came from Rosneath on the other side of the Firth of Clyde, just six miles away from Dunoon as the crow flies, but if the crow had to walk from Rosneath to Dunoon carrying an empty petrol can, the distance would be 54 miles by road around the head of Loch Long! Anyway Matt Calderwood’s Ford Escort RS failed to make the distance although brother Scott salvaged some family pride with 23rd overall in the Peugeot, but nothing was ever straightforward with those two!

Further down the results sheet was another local crew, a certain newcomer by the name of Stuart McQueen with Alistair Green finishing 29th overall in their class winning Vauxhall Astra.

As ever, there are more tales and photos in the books, and the mobile sales Book-tique will be at Dunoon Stadium all day Friday 19th June but sadly not on the Saturday. Space will be tight in the service park so the Book-tique presence might be small – just look for the flag:

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

Also on Ebay – search for ‘Scottish Rally Championship’ books

 

Rally - Changing times

40 years ago, rallying in Argyll was very different to what will be ‘presented on stage’ next week on the Dunoon Presents Argyll Rally. Back then the action took place on the Forestry Commission’s gravel roads as opposed to Argyll & Bute’s tarmac highways and byways.

The 1986 event was memorable for many reasons, Ken Wood’s first full season with the mighty MG Metro 6R4 and Donald Heggie’s first full season in the Audi quattro A2, and of course a certain youngster started to make his mark on the results sheets - as well as the topography!

After a winning debut with the Metro on the final round of the 1985 Scottish Championship, the Trossachs Rally, Ken Wood and Peter Brown won the Dunoon based Autofit Stages Rally in 1986 while victories on the Kingdom Stages Rally and a repeat victory on the Trossachs clinched the crew’s third Scottish Championship title.

Having won the end of season 1985 Galloway Hills Rally on the Audi’s debut, things looked promising for Heggie and Iain Mungall as they won the season opening Snowman Rally round in 1986, but an off-road ‘extra curricular’ excursion on the Autofit Stages scuppered their own chances of a third national title. Coincidentally, finishing second behind Heggie on the ’85 Galloway Hills were a certain Murray Grierson abetted/hindered by one ‘Jaggy Bunnet’ on the maps! The number 2 Ford Escort crew had a grandstand view of top seed Donald’s first attempts to tame the beast running ahead of them while experimenting with left foot braking – not that the Audi was ever within sight, but the marks and power gouges that were left in the road by the turbocharged German tractor told their own tale!

But back to the ’86 Autofit, David Gillanders and Graham Neish finished second to Wood just 10 seconds adrift in another Metro 6R4 while Murray Grierson and Roger Anderson were third in the Opel Kadett 400.

Also finishing in the top ten was a wee red 1600cc Talbot Sunbeam. On only his fourth forest stage rally, Colin McRae, with Nicky Jack, were 9th overall finishing 1 minute 16 seconds clear of regular 1600 class pace setters, Andy Kelly and George Black in their Sunbeam in 13th place. Yet another crew of note finished 18th overall in another Sunbeam, this one driven by Barrie Lochead and navigated by one Derek Ringer Esq. The ‘McRae legend’ was on its way!

Presenting the prizes was the boss of Autofit himself, Ian Wilson.

It’ll all be a wee bit different next weekend, from nine stages on grush to sixteen stages on asphalt, the 2026 Dunoon Presents Argyll Rally offers a rather different challenge to that which faced competitors exactly 40 years ago.

By the way, there are more photos in the books:

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

Also on Ebay – search for ‘Scottish Rally Championship’ books

Thought for the week

Despite all the glamour, riches and privilege surrounding Formula 1’s annual visit to Monaco last weekend, it wasn’t the racing that made the big headlines, it was the appearance of one pampered wee middle-aged woman with a big bahookie and a re-buffed grey-haired gridwalk interviewer that tickled the fancy of news headline writers around the globe. Anything to lift the tedium of a high speed procession around tin-fenced narrow streets, eh!

It’s not tradition that attracts F1 to Monaco, it’s money. And yet the safety team which inspects and approves (or not!) every other race circuit seems to turn a blind eye when it comes to the Mediterranean’s version of Tobermory. Aye indeed, there’s armco all around, and a diver on standby in a boat in the harbour, all perfectly safe, and what about the spectators perched and packed tighter than sardines around the periphery?

Meanwhile, closer to home, on a wee island off the west coast of Englandshire some real racing had come to a conclusion where speeds getting awfy close to 200 mph are a regular feature and unlike their F1 counterparts the participants aren’t inside their machines, they are clinging to the outside of them. The only thing that protects them from lamp posts, dykes, hedges and big drops is a second skin of leather, albeit a full-body leather airbag for the first time! Yeah, that’s really safe, a suit that inflates like a balloon in an emergency.

Also ignored by the ‘national’ BBC England company (with regional opt-outs) is the fact that a Welsh chap now leads the World Rally Championship having won the latest round of this series on another island, although this one was even further away.

On the other hand, we’ve got a whole summer of ball games to look forward. If folk are not kicking balls into nets, they’ll be batting them over the nets, or hitting them with sticks into wee holes in the ground or whacking them with two-handed lumps of firewood over boundaries.

On a brighter note, at least we’ve got the Dunoon Presents Argyll Rally to look forward to on the 19th and 20th of June and the hope is that the mobile Book-tique will be there to satisfy your whimsical appetites and remind you of happier times. Happy days, eh?

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

Oh! And the photos? They were actually taken during ‘new’ car launches on location some 25 years ago. The Renault Avantime outside what was David Coulthard’s hotel in Monaco at the time and the Honda Civic Type R on the fabled island itself. Those were happy days too!