Snowman 2010 - GMSC stories

The Thistle Arnold Clark Snowman Rally 2010.

The first round of the Scottish Rally Championship 2010 had snow, the slippery kind. 124 started, 93 finished.

Jock Armstrong and Kirsty Ridick (pictured) won by two and a half minutes from Alick Kerr and Neil Shanks, and the top ten were spread over 6 minutes.

15 John Morrison / Peter Carstairs / Mitsubishi Evo 9

Slow times on the first two stages, 48th in each, (Off? Held up? Just cautious? Have not heard anything) but then picked up the pace with 20th, 14th and 16th stage times to finish 21st overall.

21 Gordon Murray / Danny Small / Subaru Imprezza

Stage one was very good lots of snow reasonable grip, we went off twice at both hairpins as the braking area was polished to ice that cost us around 20 seconds. 20th on that stage.

Stage two was almost all ice with very very slippy long straights with deep icy ruts which threw the car from side to side we both felt that a bit scary at speed, we overshot three times into slow corners again due to the braking area polished to pure ice, On one left nine we braked 100 yards from corner and wondered why the marshals started lifting the tape across the slip road…….. we both watched out the passenger window as we slid past the corner up the slip road for another hundred yards past the corner. In 24th place after the first two stages.

Stage three was again lots of snow with reasonable grip and we were enjoying the drive getting faster and faster with no moments until suddenly on a left three slid slightly wide caught the snow bank and were pulled in down the ditch and beached in the deep snow, End of Rally.

Scott [Murray - Evo, car 37, finished 13th] had a good run with lots of moments which he got away with. He loved all the stages. I think his days riding motocross helped as he well used to the bike sliding about, so doing the same in a rally car didnt appear to bother him.

Gordon

26 John Rintoul / Jim Rintoul / Mitsubishi Evo 6

Slow start, 36th on the first stage, 20th on the second, went into SS3 lying 23rd.

I hate fekin snaw!!! I was getting a wee bit cocky (yvonne says "who -------you",ha ha ) after catching a car in st 2 ,so in Stage 3 got into a wee snow bank on a L 6 and tried to pull through it but it was past my knees deep and the car beached on top but slightly down a wee bit on the left ,rescue crew had a few pulls to get it out. Jim will do a report for the news letter no doubt wi more elaborate descriptions (pish) on the events leading up to it. john

FTF

57 Colin Hay / Arlene Reid / Escort Mk2 2.0 16v

The first round of the Hankook Scottish championship lived up to its name and provided plenty opportunities for building a snowman though our day was more like an audition for dancing on ice.

We awoke to clear skies and polar bears on Saturday morning and much cursing after finding the rear tyre flat on the rally car which involved a quickish change to a rear set that wasnt really suited to the conditions and of course on tightening the nuts a wheel stud sheared off. I was a witness and for sure Graham didnt put his full weight behind it but did nothing to calm the nerves. We had more hassle in the hour before the start than the whole of last season put together.

Before long we were sat at the start of the first stage near Daviot. You just get a feeling that the escort is not really the car for the conditions when the marshalls gather round the rear of the car to push you off the start line and once they let go they could of won a 100m sprint against the car. Well i ended up in survival mode and drove pretty crap to say the least. The car continually spun the wheels on the ice and i still managed to spin off backwards on a downhill section into a 90 right. We sat spinning the wheels and couldnt get going and once we did get going the Lancia delta behind us was past and a bit further down the road we were caught by a Subaru. We ended the stage 99th overall.

Millbuie was just as bad with even 4 wheel drive cars struggling off the line then overshooting the first corner at the top of the hill. Before the start i apologised to the Subaru driver that was behind us on the previous stage but the crew gave a huge smile and stated that they enjoyed watching the escort going sideways down the straights and in the short section they thought i was off on two occasions.

Stage two saw us loose more time with a spin which needed spectators to push us away again in the icy conditions we later stalled at a corner due to being a bit heavy handed on the handbrake when throwing the car to scrub off the little speed i had. We ended the stage 76th.

The tyres that were meant to be on were now fitted at service and we headed to stage three, north of Strathpeffer. Rumour had it that there was a section for over three miles that was gravel so we made the most of this stage and pushed hard, but lost time with another spin towards the end of the stage which yet again was a huge bobsleigh track. Really enjoyed this stage and noticed the spectators clapping as we approached (perhaps it was a slow clap) anyway you know you are going well when you see the spectators running behind the tree line. 45th through the stage with a spin and another stall was good enough to jump to 2nd in class.

Stage four was cancelled after the ambulance was called to take a crew to hospital, thankfully all were okay.

Stage five had us spin again and needed the spectators (and Jamie rally-photo.com, see picture) to get us going again but kept a safe pace to secure 2nd in class, 53rd overall and give us the much needed points to kickstart our championship this year.

When we got back to the finish the results showed we were last in class and something like 89th overall until we found that we had been given a time of over 26 minutes on the last stage instead of just over 10 mins but this was quickly corrected by the organisers. Next round for us is The Border Rally in a months time, hopefully nae snow !

75 Jamie Watson / Duncan Gebbie / Peugeot 205 GTI

A slow start, 94th on the first stage but 64th then 52nd on the next two. Finished 58th

84 Lachlan Cowan / Stuart Bell / Peugeot 106 GTI

2010 started well! We took the car out on Thursday night with no water in it so Friday was spent fitting a new head gasket. We headed off to stage one with our braw forest tyres on to be met by the sheet ice/snow, oops! Somehow the car slid its way to the finish line but I was having no fun and certainly wasn''t going fast. The snow cleared on the road section but 100 yards from the start of two it reappeared. We struggled off the line and up the hill made it up the hill using the holes we had cut in the floor to push Flintstone style. A couple of overshoots and visits to the ditches later we stopped the clocks and had a right giggle at the boy who had fallen over on the ice (sorry if it was you, we didn''t have much else to do.)

Stage three started well but I got caught out when the gravel changed back to ice and slid off the road into a pile of logs and rocks. Five or six spectators dragged us back onto the road (cheers!!) but the wheels were going in different directions so we just tootled round narrowly missing having to take a second cut at a hairpin in front of the most spectators I''ve ever seen. The front tyres were then shredded on the road section to service so we put the spare on the front and a wrecked one on the rear (only have/had 5 forest tyres!), nicked a tie rod off the MacKay''s and went to stage 4.

4 was cancelled so we cruised round 5 for a finish and got lost on the way to the Thistle Hotel. Considering Thursday night it was just good to get a finish!

Thanks to George and Libby Miller for running management car, the young Rintouls for helping at service, the Mackay crew for the tie rod replacement and the spectators who got us back on the road!

Lacky

Editors note: Actually, set reasonable times on the first two stages, considering the conditions and this being their second forest rally. Went into the 3rd stage 62nd in front of a lot of far more experienced forest drivers, then were 59th on the final stage, obviously continuing to pay just as much attention to management''s instructions to take it easy and get to the finish in one piece. Finished 89th overall, having lost 15 minutes on SS3.

All photos courtesy (c) Rally-Photo.com