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Snowman Rally 2005
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Johnston rises to the challenge and denies Munro home hat-trick
by Lee Kerr, SRC Press Officer
Barry Johnston, the 2002 Scottish Rally Champion from
County Durham, took overall victory on the opening round of the County
Saab Scottish Rally Championship in commanding style on Saturday.
Johnston, co-driven by Stewart Merry, in the ex-Petter
Solberg Subaru Impreza WRC took the top spot in the 50th
running of the Inverness-based event.
He won four of the eight special stages of the Arnold Clark-Thistle
Snowman Rally, and took victory by 44 seconds from local hero, and
reigning Scottish champion, Raymond Munro in the ex-Juha Kankkunen Subaru
Impreza WRC, who was co-driven by Aberdeen's Heather Connon.
After a week of mild weather in the Highlands sub-zero
temperatures overnight on Friday brought ice and snow to many of the
classic high speed forest tracks, the treacherous conditions would test
driver’s skills to the very limits over the 50 mile route.
Speaking at the end of the Arnold Clark-Thistle Snowman
Rally Johnston, who led the event from stage three, said: “I am delighted.
The stages were really good, and we have had a brilliant day.
”We have never had a good result on the Snowman before, so this is
brilliant.”
Triple Scottish champion and double-event winner Munro, who
was out in his Subaru Impreza, said: “Obviously I am disappointed not to
have won, but I enjoyed it and it is my home event so I have enjoyed it
from that point of view.”
Ireland’s Phillip Morrow, who was out in his Mitsubishi
Lancer, finished third overall and took the top honours in Group N, the
class for Production cars, which is this
year supported by Grant Construction, of Dalgety Bay.
This was the 50th running of the event and it attracted a
bumper entry of 110 crews, starting from Inverness at 8am on Saturday
where crews headed down the Great Glen to tackle four special stages,
which was part of the original route all those years ago.
Iain Campbell, clerk of the course, said: “It’s been a
great event this year. As with most events we have had a few retirements
with mechanical problems and a few off the road but the day has gone
really well.”
Around 20,000 spectators lined the stages of the event,
which is the North of Scotland’s largest annual sporting event.
First action of the day was in the twisty 4.8 mile
Corrimony stage. Although snow had been forecast for Friday night the
first stage only had small patches of ice.
Neale Dougan, Managing Director of County Saab the
Championship sponsors, who was co-driven by John Bennie in his
newly-acquired Ford Escort WRC, emerged from the stage with a four second
lead over the joint second place of Ireland’s Phillip Morrow and local
driver, Jimmy Girvan. This stage also saw the first casualty amongst the
top runners with the Ford Escort Mk2 of Steve Bannister falling foul of
the icy conditions.
Next up was the five-mile Inchnacardoch stage, one of the
many of the day to be covered with snow and ice. Johnston, who had been 10
seconds off the pace in the first stage, responded by taking his first
fastest time of the day. As the crews descended on the first service of
the day in Fort Augustus it was Dougan who was tied for the lead with
Johnston then Morrow only one second behind in third spot.
Following the 20-minute service halt Dougan set off into
the 5.5 miles of Port Clair, the first stage of the day without snow or
ice, at a blistering pace. However he was caught out by a fast tightening
left-hander and the Escort WRC left the road and hit a tree, putting an
abrupt end to their rally. The stage was blocked for some time by the
accident and as a result crews were then given a nominal time.
At the halfway point in the day stage four, which used most
of the same route as stage one, took in an extra loop making Glen Urqhart
just over eight miles, one of the longest of the day. Johnston again set
fastest time, seven seconds ahead of his nearest rival Munro.
The next stage, Rogie, was just short of nine miles with
the last mile sheet ice, claiming several of the top runners. First to
succumb to the conditions on that stage was Alan Barr, who was lying in
fourth at the time, when he left the road at speed on an icy left-hand
bend. Raymond Mason, last year’s Group N champion, also went off on the
same stage and lost around three minutes. He later decided to retire from
the event after losing so much time. The same stage saw Inverness driver
Andy Horne, in his Metro 6R4, retire with mechanical problems. It was
Inverness’s Munro who took the fastest time on this one, claiming back 21
seconds from Johnston.
Regrouping and service at Dingwall showed the top five to
be Johnston, Morrow, Munro, Girvan and John Morrison, in his Mitsubishi
Evo 4. However disaster struck soon after for Morrison, of Conon Bridge,
when he drove out of the service park and turbo problems on the car forced
him to retire.
Strathrory, the sixth stage of the day, was run in blizzard
conditions and Johnston managed to claw back 20 of the seconds he lost to
Munro on the previous test. The penultimate stage, Inchindown, was three
miles of sheet ice. Munro set the fastest time, two seconds ahead of
Johnston. Morrow emerged with a distorted front end after a minor off,
which luckily cost him virtually no time.
The final stage of the day was the 7.5 mile test of Easter
Brae, on the Black Isle. Due to delays caused by accidents this stage was
late in starting and for everyone running outside the top ten it was
tackled in the dark. Again it was Raymond, who finished the stage two
seconds in front of Barry, but it wasn't enough and the County Durham
driver took victory, with a comfortable 44 second lead.
Jimmy Girvan, of Inverness, who was co-driven in his
Mitsubishi Evo 5 by Kirsty Riddick, of Castle Douglas, finished fourth
overall with Chris Wagner in his Subaru Impreza claiming 5th.
The Group N category for production cars, which is this
year supported by Grant Construction was won by Phillip Morrow, with
Alistair Tough, partnered by Graham Law, in his Subaru Impreza second.
Tough finished sixth overall. Third was Gordon Cunningham, from Ayrshire
and co-driven by Stuart McManus, in his Subaru Impreza. He finished eighth
overall.
In the 2-wheel drive category, this year supported by
Dunlop, the top honours went to Crawford Baillie and Alistair Farquhar,
who were out in a Talbot Sunbeam. They finished 22nd overall,
one second ahead of Charlie Jarrett and Gordon Chalmers, who were out in a
Ford Escort.
Our thanks to AML Photography, David Brown
and James Mactavish for the photographs.
SNOWMAN RALLY TOP TEN:
1. Barry Johnson/Stewart Merry (Shildon/St Clement) - Subaru Impreza – 59.09
2. Raymond Munro/Heather Connon (Inverness/Aberdeen) – Subaru Impreza - 59.53
3. Phillip Morrow/Simon Morrow – (Ireland) Mitsubishi Evo 6 – 1.00.09
4. Jimmy Girvan/Kirsty Riddick –(Inverness/Castle Douglas) - Mitsubishi Evo 5 –1.00.29
5. Chris Wagner/Alan Stark – Subaru Impreza – 1.01.27
6. Alistair Tough/Graham Law – Subaru Impreza – 1.01.39
7. Malcolm Proudlock/Steven Clark (Dumfries/Elgin) – Subaru Impreza – 1.02.22
8. Gordon Cunningham/Stuart McManus – Subaru Impreza – 1.02.28
9. Andy Kelly/Doug Redpath – (Greenock/Duns) Mitsubishi Evo 4 – 1.02.56
10. Jim Carty/Neil Shanks –(Aberfeldy/Elgin) MG Metro 6R4 – 1.02.59
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