Gaun yersels ladies ... Without wishing to be politically incorrect, or even sexist, it's well worth noting that there were two young ladies in the top three positions overall at the end of last year's Marshall Construction  Scottish Tarmack Championship. 

Kirsty Mochrie was the overall Scottish Tarmack Co-Driver's Champion while Amy McCubbin finished 3rd. Alistair Inglis was the overall Driver's Champion but regular co-driving brother Colin missed out on the Co-driver's title due to 'agricultural commitments' - I think his window box needed weeding!

The final results were confirmed recently, as the method of scoring points is way beyond the likes of me on this class based championship, so had to wait for official confirmation that  Kirsty had done it - an achievement that World Champion Robert missed out on by the way.

So as far as achievements are concerned, some would have it that Kirsty's success far exceeds Reid's. All he had to do was keep Richard Burns on track, Kirsty had to cope with her auld git faither and the self-built and maintained 1 litre Metro. Keeping him shiny side up in that wee buzz bomb must have taken some doing - or an awfy big stick!

Looking ahead, the Scottish stage rallying season fires up next month but if entries for the Riponian & East Riding Stages in  North Yorkshire are any indication then things look a wee bit more hopeful for up here. Ripon Motor Sport Club have 132 entries and 15 reserves (so far) for their event on Sunday 6th February.

The 44 mile, 6 stage event also includes a couple of miles of tarmac but the main reason for that is that they link up some smaller forests and cut down on public road use.

The event also counts towards the MS UK British Historic Rally series plus some other regional championships like the ANCC, ANWCC and S G Petch stage championships so there's a lot to go for.

Closer to home, the Kinloss Stages at Kinloss Army Barracks close by the Moray Firth on Saturday 12^th February will officially get the 2022 Scottish season underway. This is a brand new venue for the sport and the Condor Motorsports Club reckon the tarmac surface is better than many of the public roads in the area! The organisers are planning a 6 stage / 52 mile format with NO splits! That means each stage will be around 9/10 miles long.

More info here:

https://www.condormsc.co.uk/ and on their Facebook page.

Funnily enough I got some schtick from a couple of folk for initially referring to the venue as RAF Kinloss but this was simply because a couple of other numpties thought it was a typo for Kinross! One actually thought it was referring to the 'T' in the Park site at the old Balado airfield in Fife. Just proves you can't please all the folk all of the time.

Anyway, a week later the new-look Burnside Piling Contractors Scottish Tarmack Championship takes to the stage on Sunday 20th February at Knockhill. This will be the first round of this year's 11 round championship series. More info shortly.

Gavin Heseltine, 1956-2021

I've only just heard, but sad to report but another good man gone. Gavin Heseltine passed away last month on the 23rd December. A stalwart of North Humberside Motor Club he was better known to us up here as Allan McDowall's regular co-driver, first in the Opel Kadett, then the Escort Mk2 and back to the Kadett. Together  the pair contested over 130 rallies although Gavin's career started some 40 years ago navigating for a variety of drivers from the Snowman in the north to Somerset in the south and everywhere in between including Ulster and Wales.

In 1988, Allan McDowall entered the Border Counties in his Kadett with a TBA in the co-driver's box. He was introduced to Gavin through a mutual friend and stepped into the unknown. Allan recalls that within 4 miles the Kadett was parked up with its tail in a Kielder ditch and they both sat there thinking the very same thought: "What the heck have I let myself in for!"

It was probably the first time that Gavin had been in such a quick car and Allan was already regarded as a handy driver. He had fitted a new Astra 16v engine and 15 inch wheels for the Jim Clark Rally earlier in the year but he was running ex-Murray Grierson and Jim Carty part worn tyres. The bigger wheels were fouling the front arches so the car was a bit of handful although they did manage to get out of the ditch having dropped only a couple of minutes and went on to finish 8th, right behind the previous year's Border Counties Rally winner, one Andrew Wood Esq!

A new partnership was born. They enjoyed much success culminating in winning the 2006 ANCR Clubmans title and 2011 BTRDA Silver Star Championship. Their final outing was last November's MAM Malton Forest Rally where driveshaft failure denied them a finish.

Perhaps the most odd thing about Gavin's competition career is that he did not have a driving licence. He travelled the length and breadth of the country by train or blagging lifts from other competitors and according to Allan, "he was never late - although the same couldn't be said for me!"

However he did hold a Provisional licence at one time and had taken a few lessons but had never taken the process any further, although passing his test and buying a car was on his 'bucket list' for when he retired from work.

The lack of driving licence didn't hold him back. He was part of a hard working team within NHMC taking an active role in the planning and organisation of the club's three single venue rallies and acted invariably as Secretary of the Meeting or Entries Secretary. He was also heavily involved in the running of the North Humberside Forest Rally. He also undertook much of the club's paperwork including editing the club magazine.

Outwardly a quiet thoughtful man, he had a number of nicknames which indicated a wilder streak. He was sometimes referred to as 'the Viking Warrior' or 'Hagar the Horrible' but had a rather less well known nickname 'the Gazelle'. It is alleged that in the dim and distant past on a snowy event in Yorkshire the car he was in eventually got stuck having been off some 3 or 4 times already. Gavin decided to walk out of the stage looking for help but couldn't walk in the road because of oncoming cars and was trudging through the deep snow at the sides. At one point he feared for his life when an out of control car appeared to be coming straight for him at which point he recalled himself that "I leapt like a gazelle across the ditch and into the trees". A remarkable feat given his physical girth, and a tale which he oft-repeated against himself, with each re-telling of the story becoming more outrageous. In moments of stress Allan would often turn to Gavin and ask,"what do we do now Gazelle?"

Gavin became ill in mid December and passed away peacefully at home. He was only 65. He'll be a sad loss to his family, his many friends, and particularly to Allan, North Humberside MC and to the wider sport of rallying.

Road - 'Smart' Motorways?

Driving through Glasgow this morning, I came across a car parked up against the armco just beyond the M77 interchange on the approach to the Kingston Bridge. There was no 'safety' lane there and although the hazards were flashing it looked an awfy worrying place to get stuck with traffic whizzing past and lane-changing.

At a time when politicians, government departments and civil servants are coming in for  a hard time, and rightly so in many instances, it's good to see one department responding to public disquiet, albeit rather later than some folk wanted and have been campaigning for.

The Department for Transport has announced that it will halt the rollout of new, all-lane running smart motorway schemes until they have amassed five years of relevant safety data. On that basis, the Government’s decision in March 2020 that all new smart motorways will be all-lane running motorways was premature. Hopefully their experts and statisticians will also look at the issues of 'Dynamic hard shoulder' and 'Controlled motorway' schemes.

Although not a problem in Scotland (yet!) many of us have experienced these so-called 'smart motorway' sections down south, especially around the NECC at Birmingham at exhibition times. From a personal point of view, they give me the heebie jeebies, especially when an eighteen wheeler with foreign plates thunders past!

Current figures suggest that these roads are safer, but without full statistics, there must be some uncertainty. For sure casualty rates have dropped since their introduction, but fatal and serious injuries have increased.

So how long will this new review take to amass five years worth of data and report its findings?  Depends on when they start!

Past experience suggests that some of these folk are not the best timekeepers in the world. Meanwhile I'll just have to put up with the heebie jeebies!

Rally bred road car

 

This is a 'teaser pic' of Toyota Gazoo Racing 's new FIA WRC inspired GR Yaris with deep front dam and huge rear wing which will be shown at the Tokyo Auto Salon customised car exhibition next week (14-16 January).

 

Rally - New Event

A brand new rally and venue will start the 2022 season next month when the RAF Kinloss Stages opens for action on Saturday 12th February. Regs will be published on January 7th and Entries open on January 14th.

The organisers are planning a 6 stage / 52 mile format with NO splits! That means each stage will be around 9/10 miles long and the surfaces are better than some of the public roads rally goers will take to get there!

The Entry Fee is expected to be 300 quid, but sadly, no spectators. This is due to the site being on MoD land and is managed as a reserve airfield. That also means security will be tight, so don't be surprised if you see a bloke with a gun at the gate if you try to gain entry without authority or permission.

Organised by Condor Motorsports Club, full details will be published here:

https://www.condormsc.co.uk/ and on their Facebook page.

Coming three weeks before the Snowman, it could be ideal for blowing the cobwebs out of the air intakes of hibernating rally cars.

The Bad News and the Good News

The Grizedale Stages Rally, originally scheduled to run on 4th December and re-scheduled to run on 15th January has been cancelled. The organisers took the reluctant decision at the weekend when insufficient entries were confirmed following last month's Storm Arwen inflicted original date.

Further south, the 31st Autosport International Show, scheduled for January 13-16 2022, at Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre, has been postponed due to Covid-19 concerns and restrictions. Alternative dates are under consideration and options for ticket holders will be communicated shortly.

Closer to home, the Scottish Association of Motor Sport Clubs is looking for a new Chairperson. Chair for the past five years, Pete Weall has resigned for personal reasons. Pete will be a hard act to follow as he was one of the more highly visible Chairpersons that the Association has ever had, popping up unexpectedly at Marshal's posts or in the co-driver's seat, and attending various events around the country promoting the SAMSC's interests, seeking and sounding out regular folks' opinions and interests. He also represented the SAMSC at MS UK council meetings and was Chair of the Motorsport UK Regional Committee. Elections will be held in March.

Similarly, the British Rally Championship is looking for a new Rally Manager. Iain 'Skunner' Campbell has been appointed FIA European Rally Championship manager takes up his new position this month. He is a former Rally GB clerk of the course and also chaired the stewards at WRC rounds. The eight round 2022 ERC series is set to get underway in Portugal in March. Whilst I'm sure we all wish him luck, I think we should all be concerned for his welfare. The only thing redder than Rudolph's nose is a Scotsman in the Mediterranean sunshine.

Former Champion with Future Champion?

On  another positive note rally driver and co-driver, and some time racer, Ashleigh Morris is amongst the Formula Woman finalists. From over 800 applicants from 16 countries, the final 50 have now been selected to take place in the finals in March. The 6 winners will then be chosen to compete in the 2022 GT Cup in a McLaren! Gaun yersel Ashleigh, just make sure you "blow the bluidy doors off" the opposition!

And on a more personal note. Apparently concerns have been expressed within the confines of Castle Bunnet at the recent news which the Junior 1000 Ecosse Challenge has announced. As of this month Rhona Dickie will take on the role of Championship Co-ordinator. Rhona has been a valuable member of the team since the early days of championship and is both well known and respected within Junior rallying.

However, of more pressing concern to my big pal Jaggy is: "What about the tablet?" For those who didn't know, Rhona brings two large tins of God's nectar (home made Scottish tablet) to each round of the Junior rallying series. This life sustaining, energy boosting succulence is regarded by many as the main reason for a certain journalistic presence all too often seen within the Junior 1000 marquee under pretence of reporting on the youngster's rallying activities.

But will her new duties allow her the time to continue this tradition? Apparently, the big chap is seriously anxious about this turn of events!