Rally - Armstrong's 9th

What an end to a championship. Good stages, high speeds and sunshine brought the 2017 ARR Craib Scottish Championship to a close. Three seconds decided the victors on the Armstrong Galloway Hills, but Jock Armstrong wouldn’t be denied his 9^th win on his home event. With two stages to go he had a 23 second advantage, but 4^th placed Euan Thorburn was on the case blasting through the final two tests to cut that deficit to 3 seconds.

As Jock said at the finish: “Close, but not close enough.”

It could have been different. Thorburn had a throttle problem on the first stage, had to stop, switch everything off, re-set the system before setting off again. Then on the second stage: “I had switched the anti-lag off when I had the problem,” said Euan, “but it wasn’t till I came to a hill in the second stage that I turned to Paul and said there’s something wrong, it’s not pulling – then I switched the anti-lag back on.” Dohhh!

Thorburn’s pace then carried him passed Mike Faulkner and Shaun Sinclair, but Sinclair hung on to third place although Faulkner lost out when the suspension broke on the Lancer and pitched him off the road on the final stage.

Rory Young was fourth ahead of Mark McCulloch with David Bogie happy in 6^th. After a day spent at the wheel of his Mk2 looking out the side windows to see where he was going.

Bruce McCombie lost out too. He clouted a rock on the first stage and blamed Mark McCulloch. “It was a big clog (Aberdeen expression for large log) that Mark had pulled out of the ditch and left it for me right on the apex.” He finished the stage but the disc calliper had been rubbing badly on the wheel.” At least that wasn’t as bad as Freddie Milne’s disappearance. Freddie cowped the Lancer.

There was more drama amongst the Challengers. Michael Binnie had to beat Simon Hay today, and he did. Michael finishing 7^th overall while Simon finished in the bushes. It appears he had gone straight on at a SqR in the final stage.

And there was even more drama. Your erstwhile rally reporter got stung by a bluidy wasp this morning and then on the way home this evening, got a puncture. There he was, the very picture of dejected misery standing in a layby with a bottle of sealant goop in one hand and silly wee 12v air pump in the other - and then it started to rain! Stung, deflated and soaked. Happy days, eh?

Top Ten:

1, Jock Armstrong, 39m 35s

2, Euan Thorburn, 39m 38s

3, Shaun Sinclair, 40m 19s

4. Rory Young, 40m 31s

5, Mark McCulloch, 40m 40s

6, David Bogie, 40m 51s

7, Andrew Gallacher, 40m 58s

8, Michael Binnie, 41m 48s

9, Donnie MacDonald, 42m 04s

10, Iain Wilson, 42m 09s

Rally - Grampian Tales

Later than promised, or not so much promised, more of a target than a deadline, but the news and gossip round-up from the Grampian Forest Rally is now in the on-line mag.

Amongst the usual sense and nonsense are some of life's little rallying gems such as, what's faster than a speeding bullet or a runaway train? Find out here, and whilst on the subject of speed. If a car is doing 70 mph and a wasp is flying around inside it, how fast is your arm going trying to swat the bluidy thing?

All that and more in here:

http://www.jaggybunnet.co.uk/2017/09/08-sep-grampian-tales/

Road - Transit goes Hybrid

Coming to a van near you - electricity. And sooner than you think. Many companies have been tinkering with electric delivery vans for a while now, but it's not something new. The very first motor vehicles were electric and I recall once seeing Jim Clark drive an electric milk float in a race for electric floats at Ingliston way back when the Edinburgh circuit was Scotland's only race track.

Fast forward 50 years and Ford has revealed plans for a Transit Hybrid, and this is just the start. Ford was ahead of the game when they produced a fully electric Transit Connect way back in 2011, but this followed on from similar attempts by Renault and Peugeot to 'switch-on' the UK and Iveco had a small fleet of working electric minibuses. It didn't happen. The public wasn't ready, and neither were the politicians.

It's all change now though, eh? We are being told by our elected representatives to banish diesel, forego petrol, turn off the gas, ignore hydrogen and go electric. They have decided that wind power is the way forward. Perhaps they're right, but there is as yet an untapped source going abegging. If the politicos were to follow their own advice they'd install a few wind turbines above the Houses of Parliament and the Scottish Parliament concrete jumble at the foot of the Royal Mile to take advantage of all the hot air being expended on matters of state and which is going to waste in the skies above those very roofs.

 
I digress. Ford has hybridised the country's most popular van. The Transit Custom PHEV has a range of up to 31 miles on battery power and uses the 1 litre EcoBoost petrol engine as a range extender. The wee engine will charge the on-board batteries when longer trips are required. It's not intended to provide a nation-wide solution but vehicles like these will be ideal for city centres and urban sprawls, not so much for cross-country deliveries. And there's another problem - towing.

 
At the present time Hybrids represent the most logical answer to the problem of fossil fuelled motor engines. Hybrids offer an acceptable and logical first step towards the wholesale change desired by those who govern and issue their proclamations

Rally - McRae Gravel Challenge .

Entries for this one-day forest stage event on 23rd Sept, which will bring the 2017 Scottish forest rallying season to an end, will close on Saturday the 9th. That means no more 'gravel rush' till February next year! Five months without the perfume of pine and petrol, stoor and brake dust and the sound of wind rushing through the trees and over bonnets and wings.

At time of writing there are still half a dozen slots to fill, and if there is a last minute flood, a few more could be fitted in above the 50 max. That's because the route has been finalised and service park sorted.

According to Fergus, John and Alex, the Craigvinean forest roads are like 'motorways'. No problem for Fergus' Range Rover but John added he could take his Merc through. And considering just how pernickety he is about his motor, that's saying something. Two runs of two stages, sign-on and Scroot in the morning, have a blast through the woods and go home the same evening. What's not to like?

There will be one main spectator arena (cleared by the Forestry boys and girls) at the Hermitage with an overspill spectator area further up the hill depending on numbers.

One more thing. The Course Car. It will be a Vauxhall Firenza. With four more cylinders than everyone else! Now I wonder who will be driving that, eh?

http://www.coltnesscarclub.com/src_mgc.html

Rally - Galloway Hills preview

Forget the Queensferry Crossing there is a much more impressive engineering sight to be seen and used in the Galloway Forests this weekend. Two years back Solway, Machars and east Ayrshire CCs designed and constructed 'the Clone Crossing', a magnificent wooden structure which spans the deep and wide expanse of the Clone Burn which feeds into Loch Ken.

This mid-stage shortcut enables spectators to walk safely across the deep gorge and turbulent waters to facilitate their access to the Cairn Edward Special Stage on Saturday. And it's still there despite the millions, or maybe thousands, perhaps just a few hundred - OK, a few dozen feet which have trod the boards since then. Indeed, an engineering marvel of the modern age.

There's also a new improved and enlarged Car Park at the location courtesy of those nice folk at the Forest Commission.

Oh! And the other picture? Just be careful what you ask for when the Service Crew is harrassed - I'm sure he was asked for a Jam Roll not a Bog Roll.

Anyway, there's a short Preview here with Full Entry List and Spectator Info:

http://www.jaggybunnet.co.uk/2017/09/06-sep-galloway-entry-listpreview/