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Jim Clark Reivers - now with Rinty-Vids
All photos below courtesy (c) Rally-Photo.com
Four of eight
I''ve been spectating at the Jim Clark Memorial rally for as long as I can remember so to get to compete in it was nothing short of a dream come true! I decided tp travel down to Duns to watch the super special stage of the International Jim Clark rally on Friday night, that was a mistake. I couldn''t sit still after it! "it''s only two more sleeps" was how my new co-driver responded to a text saying " a canny f****** wait!" sent as the WRC cars blasted past at what seemed like warp factor 9.
I entertained myself on the drive back home by making the sounds of a WRC car in the hope my car would go like one, it didn''t.
On Saturday afternoon Garry Muir arrived to navigate for me all the way from Peterhead along with Tracey Louise Muir who was sitting beside my Dad since she''s broke all her own cars!
Sunday morning my stomach was doing strange things but it soon settled down at the start line of SS1. We set off up the hill Garry getting used to me and me getting used to our new tyres. We made it through with a few scary braking moments in which the back end decided it''d rather be hanging out to the side and trips to the surrounding verges with a slightly larger detour that came far to close to a ditch for my liking. We suffered nothing as bad as Ross Fernie though who had remodelled his Escort into big white ball.
A phone call from home informed us we were 4th in class by 0.4 seconds so we headed off to SS2 Ayton looking forward to picking up the pace.
It was not to be! A big queue awaited us as the Rintouls suffered a locked diff and a passenger ride into the surrounding shrubery and ended up blocking the stage. The stage started again and we made it 5 cars from the start line only to be told the stage had been cancelled as "medical assistance was required at junction 6". The marshals did a good job to get 21 cars turned around and back down a single track road to allow us to head for SS3 Buxley.
We arrived to another big queue and more disappointment, the stage had been cancelled and we were to drive half way through before turning off and cutting back to service.
Not much was happening at service since we''d only done one stage! So a fill up of fuel to try and stop the back end from dancing around as much and we headed to SS4 Weatherburn. This time we were in luck with the stage running but not with the brakes! Fading around one mile in it made life interesting into a few corners, but we finished the stage in one piece and headed off to try our luck the second time at SS5 Ayton 2. No Luck, stage cancelled as was SS6 Buxley 2.
We were instructed to head back to service in the hope we the organisers would be able to run the remaining stages before the roads had to open up for public use. We took consolation in the thought we would have a chance to bleed the brakes, wrong. We were told to head straight for SS7 Weatherburn 2 or there wouldn''t time and that would have to be cancelled as well. That thought was enough to send us scurrying off towards SS7!
We arrived at the start line in the baking hot sun and the chaos that was stage arrival. Hats off to the marshals as they managed to sort out the mess and get us on our way. Having just done the stage (all be it a few hours and what felt like a thousand road miles later) we were a bit quicker this time because I was rather wound up by this point and decided the best stress relief was driving faster. That nearly became a daft mistake in the form of a big tank slapper over a jump much to Garry''s excitement which he expressed with colourful language and a "well done" at the finish line. Other than that incident it was a clean run through playing "dodge the rally car sticking out the ditch/bush" for most of the stage. Melting inside the oven we called our car we headed for the final stage of the day, Harehead 2.
The closer we got to service the more apparent it was we were going to run out of fuel having lost a service earlier on in the day. We were forced to head to Harehead via service which made making our start time exciting!
We set off the line killing the clutch in the process and up the hill with our new slippy clutch. We made it up the hill and past our fans from Glenrothes Motor Sport Club who had made the treck down from Fife to spectate and jump around at the side of the road waving us on up the hill. With that encouragement we didn''t lift off all the way up the hill and soon caught a 206 going back down the hill with our rather poorly brakes. Trying that little bit harder with them in our sights we slid off the road where Ross Fernie had on SS1 and onto the grass, thankfully they had moved Ross''s car or our passenger ride would of stopped abruptly in his boot. After being thrown around we some how missed all the rocks scattered across the ground and found our way to the road again, only to look up and find the 206 bouncing across the grass in front of us! Possibly distracted by our alternate route (?) they were now travelling at speed across the bumpy scenery. After passing them all that was left to do now was make it up the hill and across the finish line which we managed without any further drama apart from a seriously raised heart rate.
We finished on a high after being really annoyed at only getting to do half of the rally which still annoys me as I write considering it worked out at over £100 per stage. I had thought we were well out of the class running having received 4 nominal stage times which others managed to escape when the phone calls started coming in from home. They were trying to tell me we were second in class but I wasn''t having any of it! But sure enough it was our names the chap on the stage called out and up we went to collect a cracking wee trophy each.
It was great to see spectators out on the stages as that was a new experience for me, I just hope they weren''t put off by the £5 entry fee and the long delays.
For my second pace note event and having nae brakes, second in class isn''t bad!
Thanks once again to Gordy and Stobbs for servicing and the Muirs for sitting beside us, I hope everybody else had as good a time as I did!
Lacky
OK, you read the book, now watch the movie!
Lacky and Garrys Excellent Adventure
And now, in exclusive footage rescued from the cutting room floor, Lacky and Garry audition for the roles of Dick Dastardly and Mutley in: Wacky Lawnmower Races.
Finished 13th, 5th in class.
Any one for tennis...... ????
We may have had more hair and been as fit as butchers dugs by now if our
chosen hobby had been playing wi the lassies !!!! Still there may be a
chance of a late entry.
We - Rintoul bro''s - were chuffed to bits on this Scottish Championship
Round to be seeded at 12 , based on our 6th overall finish last year.
Compare this to the gravel events where we would be starting somewhere in
the 30''s. The car was prepared with as many of the Tarmac Car donor parts as
we had time to transfer as well as a head gasket repair from the Granite.
As late as 2.00pm on Saturday afternoon we were peein about wi rear cambers
and toe in.......but by 4.30 we were off, ie...... Hoddit, Doddit, and
Mutley.
James Bond was arrivin'' and drivin'' cos he couldnae bear the thought of
exposure to the ''Star Spangled Y''s'' of our head Mechanic ( Hoddit ) in a
tent.
Even if our exploits on the Rally are nothing to write about, we''re applying
to Gordon Brown for an award for "how 3 grown men can thrive and survive
overnight for ony 85p " Quartermaster and (''white'' far eastern person)
Doddit McElrath rummaged thro the Lidl bargain basement for sweet and sour
chicken, sweetcorn and dried rice wi Jerusalem Artichoke. It tasted fine
even though it looked like the entrails fae a bit o road kill wi maggots.
Auld Creevy was up at half five in the morning for something that didnae
sound like a pee to me......
The sun was shining tho, and we were nervously anticipating the Rally Start
wi screw drivers and spanners ready to make adjustments to the suspension.
The first stage Harehead, would normally have been a steady ramp up to
speed, then start geein it fodder once we''d settled in but no !!!!..... the
wee man used anti-lag and gave it ''what fur'' fae the green light. The
straight at the top o the hill along past the trees must be the fastest bit
of the whole rally...about 125mph and apart from a wee slip at the bridge
down at the river we managed a 12th overall 6.01.02minutes.....and more in
reserve.
Next stage Ayton 1 was one we were looking forward to, with the ''open
hairpin left'' at the edge of the town, and plenty of camera''s for posin
slides...... We got there - wi a good tug on the handbrake and smokin power
slide round and everything was hunky dory. Up the hill, s bends, a couple of
longish straights and under the railway bridge to a hairpin right at
junction 6, handbrake again and power away to thne fast left 4 when bang !!,
the rear of the car locked up and broke away arse over the verge and stopped
broadside on the narrow bend. [See video below; Ed.]
The car stalled twice in attempt to get clear
and we concluded a seized diff to be the likely cause - so I was oot the
car and up the road like a scalded whippet to slow down oncoming cars before
we were T boned.
The stage was stopped while spectators marshalls and the rest tried in vain
to shove or drag the bugger before a suspended tow was ordered.
It must have been parked in a layby in Abereffindeen going by the time they
took to get there, but that was the long and short o it.
End of Rally.
Sorry for the stage losses for the guys down the field.......
Roll on next year.
Jim
And now in glorious Technicolor, Jim Rintoul in: The Return of The Scalded Whippet
Finished 96th, no details.
First stage, so far so good ...
Glad to say they both walked away from it.
An update: The following Friday your roving reporter visited Ross Fernie Motors for an MOT.
Roving Reporter: "Ye sair?"
Ross: "Jist mah wallet".
The shell is fixable, and will be on the jig next week.
Retired 6th stage, mechanical. No details.
Retired 2nd stage, the brand new fuel pump failed.
Finished 68th, 8th in class
Finished 92nd, 5th in class
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