Snowman 2003:

| 2003: View results |

Our thanks to the New Pig Scottish Rally Championship Co-ordinator, Robert Beck for the report on last year’s Arnold Clark-Thistle Hotels Snowman Rally.

It didn't snow! Hurray! But it was cold and frosty - with a bit of snow still lying over the first few miles of SS1 - which left the stages with what Bill Sturrock accurately described as a permafrost layer. No cutting up to worry about then.  Rather, tricky conditions that just got trickier as the passage of cars polished the already slippery surface. And, of course, it was inconsistent and unpredictable which made for a lack of confidence all round.

Nobody said it was going to be easy, but it is the Snowman after all and it would be pretty boring if all the rallies were the same, wouldn't it…?

The Great Glen was at its spectacular best on a cold, clear sunny day, and the weather probably contributed to an unbelievable influx of spectators onto the stages. This, of course, can bring its own set of problems, some of which you can read about elsewhere in this edition. But the importance of the event to the local economy cannot be overestimated, and should be shouted from the rafters at every operchancity.

Anyway, enough of that particular soap-box for a while. The quality and quantity of the entry for the first round of the 2003 New Pig Scottish Rally Championship was nothing short of pretty damned splendid. With a fair smattering of World Rally Cars added to the mix, it had all the makings of another closely fought competition.  Last year's winner Callum Guy followed the same pre-event ritual this time round with a trip to John Haughland's Rally School followed by a rally in Norway. In 2002 he followed this up with a victory on the Snowman. Unfortunately, this year he didn't have any snow to help, and was running first on the road - the price for being such a smart callum a year ago. With 'new' co-driver Davy Robson alongside it took as long as the first corner to realise that things were maybe going to be a bit more difficult this time round.

The first stage at Rogie proved that the Wood's Audi Quattro was back on song after last year's protracted suspension problems, taking an early lead from the Impreza WRC's of Barry Johnson/Stewart Merry and Raymond Munro/Neil Ewing. Callum Guy/Davy Robson were not as shabby as they perhaps thought in their Lancer, only 6 seconds further back. A decidedly unwell Neale Dougan was 5th in his Escort WRC, at least showing some much needed reliability after the disasters which befell it at the end of the 2002 season, while Alan Barr/Bill Ballantyne were going well in their new GpA Impreza, 1 second up on the Brian Lyall/John Bennie Escort WRC which was suffering from an early misfire that would only be cured with a coil change after SS3.

Andy Kelly/Roy Campbell grabbed an early lead in GpN in their Lancer Evo 4, ahead of a slow-starting Jon Burn/Stan Quirk in their Metro, which was only completed on the eve of the rally. Jon has spent the winter re-fettling the front suspension on the car, so a bit of playing in was perhaps a good idea.

Already, the anticipated GpN tussle had lost two of its main players. The traditional bad luck that plagues him at the start of every season left Barry Groundwater with a blown turbo in the Lancer Evo 5 he shares with Jude Wylie. The winner of the Park National 'B' event at the end of 2002 wasn't able to carry that speed and good fortune over the winter. Meanwhile, the George McDonald/Ian Nicoll Impreza went off - for a long time - and, despite getting a tow back out they were OTL.

Jock Gray/Fergus Loudon's hopes of a successful return to the Scottish Championship in their weird and wonderful Metro derivative were also dashed, with yet another mechanical malady when the new cam belt fitted the week before the event broke at the end of the 1st stage.

After 1st service the crews turned south down the Great Glen for 2 stages before 2nd service at the home of the FART. Andrew Wood and Jon Burn took one fastest stage time each as the former consolidated his early advantage and the latter woke up and got the finger oot.

Andrew & Ann arrived at Fort Augustus with an almost healthy sounding 18 second lead from the Munro/Ewing Impreza, which had spun near the finish of SS3. A further 12 seconds back, the Johnson/Merry example had given the occupants a wild ride when the tyres weren't matched up properly on the early stages. Guy/Robson were not alone in overshooting the final junction on Port Clair, and were coming under pressure from the fast closing Burn/Quirk combo.   Meanwhile, the bottom half of the top 10 were separated by only 17 seconds. Dave Weston/Neil Shanks had moved onto the leader board after a cautious start which Dave attributed to being more shaken by his biggy on last year's Speyside than he expected. Rogie probably wasn't the best place to discover this.

Stage 2 was delayed for a while when the rescue services were sent in after the Donald Carslaw/John Duke Impreza went off in a big way after being blinded by the low sun and hitting a patch of ice, slamming the car into a rock face and leaving Donald requiring a visit to hospital where a broken wallet .. sorry, wrist … was diagnosed. So much for having a doctor as a co-driver then.  Donald was still smiling in the bar later, using his own form of anaesthetic, which was obviously recommended by his co-driver who was very kindly joining him. Mind you, the smiles were a bit more fixed in the morning as both took the air outside the hotel - in rather large gulps I thought… I don't think the arm was hurting but something certainly was.

Local Charlie Jarrett also tried to make his job of cutting down trees easier with an off first time out in his very tidy 1600 Mk2 Escort, while the GpN battle lost yet another of the front runners when the Lancer of John Morrison/Ally Mackay retired at the end of the 2nd stage with the same problem that had afflicted the Groundwater/Wylie example earlier in the day.

Even in the hard undertyre conditions, punctures still played a part in the proceedings - not as big a part, maybe, but try telling that to Gordon Smith/Pete Carstairs, who suffered a front puncture on the first stage that eventually led to an off, which broke a strut and left the service crew searching for a replacement front wing - they eventually found a suitable replacement, from a VW Polo, no less, which was considerate enough to be red, almost blending in seamlessly with the rest of the car - well, perhaps not quite but keeping them street legal at least.

After Fort Augustus, crews tackled 2 more stages before 3rd service at Damnandblastit - or Drumnadrochit, as it's sometimes known - close to Coogie's ancestral pile and home of tacki-ness.

Raymond Munro took his first fastest time of the day on SS4 at Glengarry, and this coupled with a slow time for the Woody's closed the gap at the head of the field to 3 seconds. With hindsight, Andrew reckons that perhaps going with new tyres at 2nd service might have helped stave off the challenge, but whatever, it was game on now, and Raymond could see the possibility of actually winning his home event for the first time in 22 years of trying. Another fastest time on SS5 left the top 2 separated by only 1 second with the final run through Glen Urquhart left.

A couple of 2nd fastest times put the Burn/Quirk Metro ahead of Guy/Robson and brought them to within 13 seconds of the 3rd placed Impreza of current Champion Barry Johnson. Neale Dougan/Doug Redpath were still going, Neale feeling slightly better and extolling the virtues of Lucozade as he moved up to 5th place by 3rd service, but with only 21 seconds between them and Alan Barr/Bill Ballatyne on 10th place, there was still scope for some change before the crews returned to the final control at the Thistle Hotel. Kelly/Campbell maintained their lead in GpN, in 8th place. Their nearest challengers had been the Gordon Cunningham/Stuart McManus Impreza who had been going well all day in the difficult conditions - that is until they tripped up on a particularly difficult bridge on stage 5. The Wood's had been fortunate to get away with a moment on the same bridge, which the cars hit at an angle, but Gordon and Stuart weren't so fortunate when the rear wheel jumped atop the culvert and toppled the car over the edge, landing upside down in the water. Both crew members were OK, if a little damp, which in the cold conditions was a less than ideal situation. However, they were more annoyed that their mobile phones got ruined by the water flowing through the car.

This incident sent Environmental Scrutineer Peter Clingan into action and he set off for the stage, spill kit to hand, to mop up any potential spillage. This is just the kind of situation that the spill kits carried by all crews is meant to help deal with. I suppose it's not exactly the first thing that anyone who's just had an off thinks about but it's worth trying to bear in mind, much as everyone now automatically thinks to get their warning triangle out immediately after an off.

Glen Urquhart included some of SS2 again, and the effect of the first passage of cars was somewhat different from the norm, polishing the surface rather than cutting it up. Conditions were even more unpredictable than earlier in the day, and with new tyres fitted on the Audi, the Woods set off to defend the most slender of leads, which they looked like doing until Raymond got the signal with 4 miles to go that he was 3 down - and went for it, as if you would expect him to do anything else. This time luck was with him and he emerged victorious by 1 second. Andrew was really pissed off at missing out by such a close margin after leading all day, but a good points score and a car now working properly again should soften the blow in the cold light of day.  Jon Burn actually took fastest time to leapfrog ahead of Barry Johnson into 3rd place, while Dave Weston jumped from 9th to an excellent 5th, delighted with such a strong finish after such a shaky start.

63 Car Club were marshalling the stage and had already had a full and eventful day dealing with the earlier accidents, but unfortunately their day was to go on for a lot longer yet after the Guy/Robson Lancer suffered a big off in the icy conditions, both crew members battered and bruised and Callum on his way to the hospital where several broken bones in his foot were diagnosed. Davy meanwhile was a bit sore, but otherwise OK, although I did get a text message a few days later wondering if anyone wanted to play snooker as he already had one pink and one blue - can't think what he was on about at all, it sounded as if the accident had addled his brain…

Andy Kelly won GpN quite comfortably in 6th overall having moved ahead of a cautious Dougan and Lyall over that final stage. Alan Barr was unfortunate to endure an exploding clutch at the end of the final stage, leaving them stranded. They did get a tow back to the final control but were subsequently excluded for receiving outside assistance. Malloch Nicoll/Graham Law moved into the top 10 for the first time, taking 2nd GpN in the re-liveried Lancer Evo 4, while William Bonniwell/Allan MasDougall exceeded all expectations by claiming 10th place first time out in the ex-Alan Barr GpN Impreza. 4-wheel drive doesn't mean that Willie is going to be any less spectacular but he admitted to proceeding with some caution, hell bent on returning the car back to Inverness in one piece.

The far travelled Tony Thompson/Richard Myers Lancer Evo 6 had been challenging Malloch Nicoll all day. Delighted with some new found pace thanks to some private tuition from Mark Higgins, they couldn't believe the amount of information contained in the notes compared with what they're more used to in the likes of Dalby. Unfortunately, a puncture on the final stage dropped them out of a possible top 10 finish, leaving them in 12th place.

Stuart McQueen/Alistair Green returned to the Scottish Championship, but gone was the GpN Lancer to be replaced by a smart Impreza WRC that Stuart had acquired just prior to last year's Tour of Mull. Not the easiest of rallies to learn some radical new equipment, Stuart and Alistair were content to get round in one piece, finishing 13th overall.

The need for the rescue services to take Callum to hospital left the stage unable to be completed until their return, by which time darkness had fallen and the temperature had plummeted even more. Most people, needless to say, didn't have extra lights fitted.

Alan Dickson/Martin Forrest didn't have the best of events in their GpA Subaru Impreza. A lurid spin on SS1, which required something like a 16 point turn to get pointing the right way again, was followed by a puncture on SS2 which destroyed a wheel. Any hopes of a good finish gone, the crew continued in the hope of getting more acquainted with the car. Unfortunately, they also got more acquainted with a bit of solid scenery on the final stage, the immaculate car returning to Inverness looking rather sorry for itself with a huge dent in the front pushing the bonnet well up in front of Alan's line of vision. 14th overall was not what was hoped for on a day that both would probably rather forget.

Ian Baumgart/Gail Hislop were a very late entry after much burning of midnight oil in the preceding week while Ian worked on the GpN Impreza. The hard work paid off with another reliable run to 15th overall, only 7 seconds ahead of the GpA Lancer of Lorna & Andrew Smith who were closing the gap fast at the end of the day after a cautious start. Lorna had benefited from some cold weather Scandinavian testing prior to the event and proceeded to prove that a start number of 52 is unlikely to be good enough in the future, 13th fastest on stage 4, 16th on stage 5 and 15th on stage 6 bringing them up to 16th overall, 2 seconds ahead of the top 2-wheel drive runners.

With grip at a premium, it's not really surprising that a front wheel drive car would benefit, but the 1600 Peugeot 106 of Barry Morrison/Roger Clark was still being pedalled along at a pretty impressive rate. With some demon engine mods having been carried out over the winter by Ken Wood, the crew were hoping to mix it with the bigger boys for some extra competition. That they then beat all of them first time out bodes well for some epic tussles throughout the year, particularly when you add the likes of Steve Bannister and Calum Mackenzie into the mix. But they were quite fortunate this time round, riding their luck with an off into a ditch on stage 2 which required some outside assistance from the great unwashed and suffering a couple of punctures into the bargain.

Fastest of the 2-litre cars, Willie Stuart/ Heather Connon equalled the wee Peugeot's time on SS1 in their Mk2 Escort, running Colways which they reckoned gave them an edge in the snowy conditions. Mull residents Eddie O'Donnell Jnr & Snr were 14 seconds further back in their 2.1-litre Escort, and 12 ahead of a returning Keith Robathan who had bought back his old Mk2 from Malcolm Buchanan.

The class 5 battle always looked like being a 3 way battle between the Astras of Callum Munro/ Simon Mills and Craig Maconochie/Roger Morgan and the recently acquired ex-Alister McRae Nissan Sunny Gti of Bruce McCombie who had boo … sorry, Iain Morrison alongside reading the notes.  Bruce obviously decided to play himself in gently by tipping the car on its side early in stage 1 and dropping a couple of minutes. Iain hurt his arm in the process but was refusing to go and get it checked out for fear of missing out on co-driving on the Kall Kwik the following day.  Craig and Roger took an early class 5 lead as Callum and Simon acclimatised themselves to their new car, almost 1 minute slower.

Willie and Heather set the 2-wheel drive pace on stage 2, but all the top runners were much closer this time, with only 10 seconds covering something like 9 crews, which included the leading 205 Challenge runner and top Junior Robbie Dale.  Stage 3 saw the Morrison/Clark Peugeot stamp its authority on proceedings and Keith Robathan/Ian McIvor clawed back some time on the class 6 leaders for the first time, while Callum Munro/Simon Mills also started to close the gap on the class 5 front runners.