Photo Credit: Lindsay Photo Sport Round 4 of the 2016 MSA British Rally Championship saw Britain's and some of Europe's best rally drivers and co-drivers head to Scotland and Dumfries for the RSAC Scottish Rally.
For the first time in two years, the BRC drivers contested the same event as the ARR Craib Scottish Rally Championship crews, meaning this was the second event this year the BRC crews were doing battle with other championships. After disappointing runs on the Circuit of Ireland and Pirelli Carlisle Rallies, Elfyn Evans and Craig Parry were in need of a strong result and delivered strongly in Scotland, dominating the event from start to finish to become the first repeat winner of the rejuvenated British Rally Championship. The Welsh pair won 6 of the 7 special stages aboard their Ford Fiesta R5. Second place went to Tom Cave and James Morgan, who used this event as their double pointer 'Joker' round. The Fiesta R5 crew did battle with local man David Bogie and his Hawick co-driver Kevin Rae all day, with the Skoda driver losing the second place position on the final stage of the event due to a puncture. However, worse was to come as the puncture Bogie picked up ate away at the Fabia's radiator leading to retirement after he had completed the final stage. To make matters worse, the Scotsman had elected his home event as his Joker. Fellow Skoda pilot Desi Henry completed the podium in third after his victory on the DMACK Carlisle Stages, and provided comment of the rally when referring to Elfyn Evans saying: "He's a World Championship driver, I'm just a builder." Euan Thorburn and Paul Beaton took their best result of the season in their troublesome Peugeot 208 T16 R5, finishing just ahead of the Citroen DS3 R5 of Jonny Greer and Kirsty Riddick. Just behind were the Fiesta R5's of Josh Moffett and then the ever impressive Jamie Anderson, with the SRC podium of Garry Pearson, Jock Armstrong and Mike Faulkner completing the top 10 overall. Sindre Furesseth won the Junior BRC, Jamie Jukes the National Cup, Matt Edwards BRC2, Chris Wheeler BRC3 and Tony Simpson BRC4. The next round of the season is the Nicky Grist Stages on both tarmac and gravel roads in just 2 weeks time.
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It's a thought I had to myself when I was driving along the country lanes of Berwickshire, made famous in the world of rallying by the Jim Clark Rally. My little Ford Fiesta is by no means a rally car, but I was really enjoying the road stretching out ahead of me, and being a Borderer who has grown up watching rally cars blast along the roads round where I live, closed road tarmac rallying is something very close to my heart. But what is it that makes it so special? In the UK at least closed road rallies are something of a rarity. At this moment in time there are none on mainland UK, but for many years the only one has been the Jim Clark which hopefully will return to the tarmac lanes next year in 2017. However, with the Jim Clark potentially returning home so to speak next year and the recent price increase in forest use for rallies that is putting Welsh forest rallying in general under serious threat, closed road rallying could be where the future of our sport lies. If you ask Scottish Rally Championship competitor John MacCrone, who is from the Isle of Mull, that's not such a bad thing. He said: "I really enjoy Tarmac, so would love to see more closed road events in the UK. Getting to recce the stages means you can be much more committed to your notes which is a lot of fun. "Narrow bumpy roads with crests and jumps are my favourite and there are plenty of these to be found throughout the country so fingers crossed closed road rallying becomes a reality!" I am by no means demeaning the charms and the attraction of forest stage rallying as it would be a tragedy if we were to lose them in Britain. The fast, flowing roads or tight, technical sections littered with hazards that sees the cars throwing up dust and stones is a spectacle worth seeing. But the main disadvantage of rallying in the forests is it is much less accessible to most of the spectators going to watch. Opel works driver and current ERC Junior points leader Chris Ingram, who has rallied on some of the best gravel and tarmac events across Europe including Wales Rally GB, the Circuit of Ireland and Ypres, gave his opinion on the matter. "For me closed road rallying is the future of the sport. It's arguably even more enjoyable than gravel rallying as the speeds are higher and a faster driver in a slower car can shine by being able to carry more speed. It is more accessible and closed road events in mainland Europe always bring out massive crowds." I may be perceived as possibly being a little biased as the reason I fell in love with rally was because of the Jim Clark Rally, meaning my first introduction to the sport was a closed road event. But the closed road events would be a credible solution to rally's current problems and should get new blood involved with the sport as they naturally get more people involved through the closure of public roads. If the rally runs past your house you can't really ignore it; a situation that has had a major affect on the number of people involved with rallying in Ireland for example. It's clear to see how much the closed road rallying means to the people of Berwickshire and beyond where the Jim Clark is staged (Photo Credit: Garry Pearson Rallying). And although there will undoubtedly be some who find the rally a nuisance, the general community welcomes events like this as they are fantastic for the economy; the Borders gains £5,000,000 from the annual event. Closed road rallying is the origin of our sport. The two oldest rallies in the world, Rallye Monte-Carlo and the Circuit of Ireland, so it's a shame it's not such a feature in the present in the UK at least. Ideally what we want are rally calendars full of gravel and tarmac events, so we get a mixture of different types of event and a bigger challenge for the competitors. As for what makes them special, just imagine walking into your local town on a Friday night and seeing a bunch of rally cars charging through. It''s a spectacle forest rallying can't give you. |
BRITISH RALLYINGArticles covering rally in Britain, looking at the MSA BRC Archives
September 2017
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