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1 DAVID BOGIE / KEVIN RAE / FORD FOCUS WRC / Class 12

Fastest on all 8 stages, won by two and a haf minutes. But they are not GMSC members, so we won''t even mention them.

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16 BOB GRANT / PETER CARSTAIRS / SUBARU IMPREZA / Class 12

Went off through a hedge, and with no grip and bad handling in the evil conditions, decided to retire and preserve the car while they still had the choice.

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17 JOHN RINTOUL / JIM RINTOUL / MITSUBISHI EVO 9 / Class 12

A tarmac round of the Scottish Championship couldn''t have come quick enough for us. After a poor season with two non finishes in the forests we had a bit of ''street cred'' to recover.

The car was put back to tarmac spec with some changes to suspension settings, and my harness tightened for a ''rough ride''. But the excitement of a damp tarmac stage 1 was short lived on the start line when we tried to ''launch as normal'' - but all was not right !!!

John was rabbitin in ma deaf ear about the clutch not working properly as I tried to spit out notes, and about 2 miles in he thought he''d a box of neutrals after the uphill hairpin - and it didnae half sound like it !!! He was crunchin and faffin up and doon the box, and the car was vibratin and giving cause for concern till he saw ''Bulls eye Bob Grant'' in the distance so he stopped using the clutch at all, and went for the flat shift up and down. We gained a shed load on our ''target'' for the day, (Pete and Bob) but as we left the end of stage we weren''t sure how much further we''d get.

It felt as if the clutch was falling to bits, but the luxury of ''tarmac grip and speed'' for a change was too good too miss.

For the rest of the day (7 - stages) we took off the start line like a couple of auld fuds, but once we were off we were luvvin it, just luvvin it.

We got a tyre choice wrong on SS3 and SS4 by going on to slicks in the hissin rain which cost us about 6 places, then just when we were clawing back up the field after SS5 and SS6 we were reluctant to do the tyre gamble again so we went safe on cut super soft tyres on the SS7 and SS8.....oops!

Perhaps it should''ve been a nice 6th overall if we''d kept up the pace, but we eased off too much and scraped a respectable 9th overall..... especially since we never expected the clutch to last.

When we got home the car was stripped to find a ''Sintered Metal Segment from the paddle clutch face'' had friction welded itself to the flywheel on the start of SS1. The result was that as the clutch slipped it was thrown clear of the flywheel giving no drive and a load of vibration.

We saw loads of horrendous skidmarks on the second time round all the stages, and I hear there were a lot of bent cars. Bob and Pete went through a hedge trying to keep ahead of us on SS6 before Bob cried ''enough''. Without ''grip'' and something amiss with the handling, he retired to avoided a bigger accident.

Jim

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47 ROSS FERNIE / JOHN YOUNG / FORD ESCORT COSWORTH / Class 12

Bearing in mind their limited experience of pace notes (which ended with cartwheeling to destruction in Bothwell last year), they drove with uncharacteristic caution, but still managed to overshoot into a field fast enough to frighten the fence at the other end. Ross thought it was a smart move by the farmer to leave the gate open, but when he saw the SRC roundup on the telly he realised that a couple of cars before him had removed the gate for his convenience.

After that they settled for getting to the end shiny side up. Finished 53rd, but still joint leaders of the STRC after 2nd overall on each of the previous rounds.

The scenery kept out of the way, the car never missed a beat all day, and when it got home all the bodywork it needed was a wash. I''m pretty sure that must be a first for Ross.

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48 GORDON MURRAY / DANNY SMALL / SUBARU IMPREZA / Class 12

Finished in river (early bath, as they say).

For a driver used to forest stages and a car set up for forest rallying, we normally go well on this event, finishing 17 overall in 2007 and 14th overall 2008 and in 2009 were 16th overall going into last stage before a puncture put us well down the order, This year after a damp stage one we were 36 fastest, stage two was 29th fastest, but were having major handling problems whether it was the driver or the car not set up .. who knows.. but in the wet conditions we were almost off a few times.
Then in stage three in heavy rain and on slick tyres we went over a small bump on a straight bit of road lost control and hit a wall taking out a telegraph pole at the same time pirouetted backwards over a bank and landed partly in the river as Danny found out when he opened the door in waist deep water, see in car camera.

So end of Jim Clark Rally again, crashed into tree here in 2006 [Aye, my family were at that corner awarding marks for style - Ed] see in car vid below. Think I should get lessons from someone on how to drive on tarmac.
We expect we will be out until the Mcrae stages in Perth as the car needs a lot of bodywork repairs along with a new engine and turbo etc etc, So appears I will be dong a bit of spectating until then.

Gordon Murray

Gordon Muray and Fergus Gray, Jim Clark Reivers 2006.

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49 SCOTT MURRAY / JOHN MACKENZIE / MITSUBISHI EVO 6 / Class 11

Retired, mechanical?

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62 STUART BAILLIE / DAVE CRANSTON / SUBARU IMPREZA / Class 12

Excuses:-

a) Not familiar with car
b) Brakes need bled
c) Handbrake doesn''t work
d) Held up by someone else breaking down/having accident
e) Detour into field
f) "There''s a bee in here. Stop the car. STOP THE F**KING CAR!!"
g) Turbo hose blew off
h) Tyres went off
i) Filled car with 2Star
j) Navigator was shit


Rally Report

Stage 1 - See a, b, c and j above
Stage 2 - See b, c and j
Stage 3 - See c, d and j
Stage 4 - See c, e and j
Stage 5 - See d, d, g and j
Stage 6 - See g and j
Stage 7 - See h and j
Stage 8 - See h, i and j

Dave.

Finished 34th, 12th in class.

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73 COLIN S HAY / ARLENE REID / FORD ESCORT / Class 8

Didn''t like the conditions and just plain drove for a finish.
Finished 70th, 9th in class.

In class 8 of the SRC, Colin has now slipped to second place, one point behind Steve Bannister, though Arlene is still equal on points with Louise Sutherland.

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81 IAN FORGAN / KATHRYN FORGAN / FORD ESCORT MK2 / Class 8

The Forgans had been out on the Clark National on Friday night, really enjoyed it while it lasted. Car was going well when Ian suddenly realised he was approaching the notorious Swinton crossroads flat in fifth, uphill. Landed on the road OK, kept going, but didnt feel right, losing power - and oil pressure! Switched off and pulled off the road. Had bent the crossmember, caught a dry sump pipe and stripped a thread on the oil pump so the oil was getting pumped though the engine bay but not through the engine.

So that''s the gold car knackered, shame about the Reivers on Sunday. Oh hang on a minute, there''s an Escort Mk2 rally car in the showroom... Come Sunday it was wet and slippery, and this car was for business, not pleasure, and was not expendable. "I could have driven the first four stages faster in my Transit van", said Ian, "But it was nice to get a finish".
Finished 43rd, 7th in class.

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86 LACHLAN COWAN / STUART BELL / PEUGEOT 106 GTI / Class 4

Finished 41st, 5th in class.

Please excuse the delay on this report as I have been sitting my final exams and attending Perth air show with the rally car as part of our partnership with the RAF.

On the first tarmac round of the Scottish Rally Championship, dominated by the reigning Scottish Rally Champion David Bogie, the cmr-rallying.com crew of Lachlan Cowan and Stuart Bell had a slow start and a morning to forget. After an off left them with a puncture and a massive time deficit to make up against the leaders of their class, it took until the latter stages of the rally to claw back some of the time to see them finish 41st overall and 5th in class. Lachlan and Stuart now lay 3rd and 2nd overall in the Scottish Rally Championship respectively in their first year of trying. Below is the full report of our day and please click onto our website for in car video and pictures.

We chose full wets for stage one as it was raining in the service park and intel from our people on stage two (thanks John!) told us the ground was still very wet. As we entered stage one it became obvious that the mud dragged out by the cars running the stage on Friday night was going to be the main issue. Even with full wets on we went straight up a banking about half a mile in, and from there I tip toed round with a few other moments along the way.

Stage two was just as wet but no mud this time round meant we could start to get used to the grip available, not very much! We picked up the pace as best we could but a spin right up the centre of the road (no idea how we managed not to touch the banking!) put us down on time and lead on to us running wide on the mud dragged out by previous cars at a 90° right. We went straight into the kerb and punctured the wheel meaning the last few flat out miles were very interesting.

When we changed the puncture post stage it was clear that the bottom arm was bent but thankfully we were due into service after this stage. A quick change in service saw us back out just in time all be it now with un cut slicks on the rear and full wets on the front as we now only had three wets after the puncture.

The driving rain on route to stage three made us concerned that there would be even less grip this time but we had slightly more grip even with the strange set up. We tried to press on but were still a worrying 23 seconds off the class leader after catching a car limping out of stage and the car that set out in front of us.

On the way to stage four one of the top runners decided that he wasn''t going to pull back onto his side of the road so we had to mount the banking to avoid a collision and bent the bottom arm back again clipping a rock! Not best pleased I entered the stage looking to step up the pace but I literally couldn''t see out of the screen as the rain was coming down so hard and my wipers couldn''t keep up. Aquaplaning our way towards the finish we were flat out in fifth gear but still 34 seconds off the class leader.

With the weather drying up we changed to cut slicks on the front and kept the un cuts on the rear but were two minutes late out of service and picked up a 20 second penalty as a result. Conditions were difficult on stage five as the grip levels were constantly changing and we came in a disappointing 24 seconds off the class leader after an overshoot at a junction cost us around 10 seconds.

In an attempt to claw back some time we had a better run in stage six stopping the clock 12 seconds behind the class leaders but picking up some damage to my door on the way and surviving a few hairy moments on the flat out run in to the finish.

With the stages drying out we changed to our super soft slicks all round and set off to the last two stages via the refuelling truck. We asked for 22 litres but my in car gauge never moved so we rushed back and asked for more and before you knew it the petrol was over flowing out the tank and the gauge showing full. So over weight with fuel we set off to stage seven trying to burn off what we could on the way.

A much better run saw us nearly catching the car in front despite Stuart starting the stage with the wrong notes meaning I had to drive the first four miles by sight. Less than five seconds behind the class leaders on this stage we set off to the final stage with the aim of catching the car in front.

Finally getting on the pace (better late than never!) we tore off into stage and caught the Subaru in front with several miles to go but unfortunately he never saw us so we were stuck behind him for the rest of the stage which ruined our chances of setting fastest class time stopping the clocks a second slower than the class leader.

In the end it made no real difference to our overall position and we finished up 41st overall and 5th in class.

In hindsight our wet tyres had been cooked on a previous event and are useless so we should never have used them in the morning which is where we dropped most of our time. Had we the budget we could have changed them after the first two stages but on a positive note we gained invaluable knowledge about driving in the rain and tyre choice.

Now tied for third place in the championship I am looking forward to the next event as is Stuart who is now second in the navigators championship. Competitors are allowed to drop their two worst scores so we hope we can keep on improving at the remaining rounds and hold our positions in our first year in the Scottish Rally Championship.

A massive thanks to Garry Muir for making the trip down to service for us, our weather men John Murray, Robert Ness and Dave MacDonald and our sponsors; RAF Careers Dundee, Demongrafixs.co.uk and Opie oils for the support which allows us to compete this year.

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94 FERGUS GRAY / MARTIN JENKINS / PEUGEOT 206 2.0 GTI / Class 7

Lost it under braking in Moon and Stars, did a wall of death act up a bank then shot across the road and down the bank at the other side. Broken suspension, stuck, end of rally.

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99 WILL HARLEY / STEVEN OGSTON / PEUGEOT 205 / Class 3

Retired end of stage 3

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103 NEIL THOMPSON / MARTYN SCOTT / VAUXHALL CORSA / Class 4

Retired end of stage 8, throttle cable.

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108 GAVIN LLOYD / MARTIN GLENDINNING / VAUXHALL NOVA / Class 3

I drove like someone’s mum for the first two stages, but as I hadn’t had the car out since January reckoned that was best. Very very very slippy, but we managed to save actually going off until the very last corner! Discovered the demister heater wasn’t working which proved to be a real pain throughout the morning. The car was starting to misfire below about 4000rpm, although really only an issue on the road sections. It was so slippy that I was convinced the tracking was way off, but the chaps checked at service and found nothing amiss.

Found a good pace second time through Moon and Stars, the only drama being when I was a bit keen to pull over and let a Subaru past, bouncing along in a ditch for a while as a result.

By stage 4 the rain was getting heavier, the car totally misted up, the misfire was getting worse, but we still managed to catch the car in front, so must have been doing something right. We threw the filter socks away in an attempt to ease the misfire, which appeared to work a bit.

We were pretty sure that the misfire was fuelling related, so the chaps fiddled about with the timing slightly at service to compensate, and that made a huge improvement. Set off into Blackadder on a mission, and promptly spun off into a hedge. We extricated ourselves from that, but now had a Fiesta ST on our back bumper. Whether that distracted me or not, I arrived at the next right 5 into bale chicane way too fast. Attempts to avoid the bales and just take out the tape failed as the car swapped ends and we played pinball with a couple of hay bales, and were treated to a round of applause (or was it a slow hand clap?) by the marshals.

By now the roads were drying nicely now, but still had the odd slippy patches, so tried to screw the nut after the stage 5 nonsense. Loved the flat out crests with nothing but 1s and 2s; rallying at its best! On stage 7 we pulled over to let a new shape Scooby through, and then managed to hang onto him for a bit, which was nice!

We eased off slightly on the final stage to make sure we got a finish. Gutted to pass Neil Thomson’s Corsa parked neatly at the side of the road, then Graeme Sherry’s Pug parked somewhat less neatly near the end of the stage! Happy to have got through my first attempt at the Jim Clark Reivers Rally and pleased with 65th overall, 7th in class and an undamaged car. Thanks to Martin for navigating, and all the chaps in service for looking after 3 cars all running within a few minutes of each other.

Cheers,

Gavin.

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126 ALAN COWAN / TRACEY LOUISE MUIR / VAUXHALL ASTRA / Class 7

Finished 66th, 3rd in class.

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Editing and reporting by Lock Horsburgh Lomond Hills IT