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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.
The battle for
class 6 honours was eventually decided in favour of Willie Stuart/Heather
Connon when Robathan/ McIvor put the Escort on its side on stage 5, losing
over a minute. At least they then finished the day on a high by taking 21
seconds back on the final stage of the day to end up in 24th place, 1 minute
20 seconds behind the class 6 winners Stuart/Connon who finished 21st and
2nd 2-wheel drive. 25th overall, and only 6 seconds behind the Escort crew
represented a superb performance from Robbie Dale/Bobby Mitchell in the
leading 1600 205 Challenge car, which wasn't the tidiest motor out there.
19 year old
Robbie, from North Berwick, had never competed on a forest rally before,
while his 16 year old co-driver had never co-driven before, so to do so well
and win the Challenge by the huge margin of almost 4 minutes from local
celeb. Tich McCooey was an incredible result on such a difficult rally, and
has already marked him out as someone to watch in the future. During his
charge through the final stage he actually caught and passed the Ford Ka of
Niki Cleland … and then had the decency to apologise about it later. The
MINTEX award for top Junior was merely one of the many awards the crew
picked up at the prize-giving.
Then again, young
Colin Main from Larkhall proved no slouch either first time out (ie ever) in
his ex-Callum Munro Vauxhall Nova. Having spent ages trying to track down a
co-driver leading up to the event, Colin managed to secure the services of
George Myatt, whom he met for the first time at scrutineering. Setting
comparable times with Robbie Dale on the first 3 stages - and leading class
2 - their rally ended after losing time on stage 4 which they completed with
the rear drivers side wheel hanging off and not enough time to fix it. This
gave them the dubious distinction of being the only registered competitors
in class 2 to non-finish….
Niki Cleland was
once again using the Snowman as a shake down prior to another assault on the
Ford Ka Championship. The car had been re-fettled over the winter and Niki
was much happier with its performance. With the experience of Steven Clark
alongside, they inherited the lead in class 2 after the demise of the Colin
Main Nova. However, they eventually lost out to the Nova of reigning 1300
Champions Gordon Alexander/Ian Clark, who weren't really expecting too much
in a car which had only been completed on the eve of the rally, but whose
initial handling problems they eventually dialled out after losing a lot of
time with a time-consuming spin on the first stage. Another class win and
29th overall was definitely better than seemed possible on the Friday night.
Douglas and
Gordon Wood made a welcome return to the Championship after tying up a
couple of late sponsorship deals in their unique Nissan Micra that faither
Ken had been tinkering with even more, giving Douglas a home-made sequential
gearbox to play with. A broken strut on stage 1 was followed by a trip into
a ditch on the 2nd stage. On the pace of the leading class 2 runners when
they got a clean run, they finished well down in 47th place, still 3rd in
class, after another problem on the final stage dropped them even more time.
Winning the
MINTEX best improvement in seeding award on his first Championship event,
Craig Smith finished 4th in class 2 in the 1400 Astra that he shared with
father Colin, who might be better known for co-driving Kenny Hall. However,
their day was so eventful that they contemplated retiring on more than one
occasion. A broken front strut on stage 2 was welded on route to the 3rd
stage courtesy of a local garage. Then the brakes failed further down the
road, which they managed to temporarily repair after the arrival control.
However, the repair was very temporary and left them with no option but to
crawl through the stage and try and effect better repairs at 2nd service.
However, this proved impossible but they decided to soldier on and despite
the lack of brakes they managed to claw some time back, even catching
another car on the final stage despite fitting spotlights for that last
stage which didn't actually work! McCombie/Morrison never really got to
grips completely with the new car, but Callum Munro/Simon Mills continued to
take time back off the similar car of Maconochie/Morgan, despite hitting 2
out of the 3 bridges on stage 5 and breaking a front strut. Going into the
final stage they were only a couple of seconds off the leaders, and they
duly completed the fight back on Glen Urquhart to win the class, finishing
30th overall, 4 places ahead of Craig and Roger.
The plethora
(good word that) of 4-wheel drive machinery on the entry list meant that
even down in the 40's and 50's there was some purposeful looking kit on
display, all with drivers on board who maybe had something to prove to some
of those seeded ahead of them. The GpA Imprezas of Stuart Irvine/Andy
McGowan, Malcolm Proudlock/Bruce Harper and Alistair Thorburn/Keith Jones
were 3 such examples, setting times all day that compared favourably with
competitors seeded in the 20's. If Stuart and Andy hadn't picked up 2
minutes time penalties for booking in early at TC2, the 3 crews would have
been separated at the end by only 11 seconds. As it was, Malcolm and Bruce
took 18th with Alistair and Keith in 19th spot.
Paul Benn/Richard
Cooke from the North of England were taking part in their first Snowman
Rally in their Ford Escort Cossie, after some impressive results on sporadic
sojourns north of the border over the last couple of years. A puncture on
both the first and second stages did nothing for their overall position or
their confidence as they struggled to come to terms with the treacherous
conditions. Lying 61st after the first 2 stages, they did stage a gutsy
fight back to an eventual 26th place.
James
Robertson/Mike Rollo were using the event as a shakedown prior to contesting
the Peugeot 206 Super Cup and came through unscathed 27th overall and 3rd in
class 3. Alan Doncaster's similar car set comparable times throughout the
day but around 6 minutes dropped on the first stage left them in 50th place,
behind the 106 of William Harkness/Iain Crosbie and 3 seconds up on the 205
of Isle of Man resident James Vickers and Andy Pemberton, whose car ran
faultlessly all day after a last gasp effort to get it ready.
So, the Championship gets off to a cracking start with the closest finish
imaginable. Highland Car Club and all the marshals and helpers are to be
congratulated on running another excellent event in difficult and testing
conditions. The sheer volume of spectators gave them and the local community
an added headache, but with the continued support of the police, local
communities and organisations I don't doubt that they will come up with
solutions to ease these worries in the future.
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