By Gerry Potter
The 2015 Hairst Rally took place on 25th
October starting in Methlick, about 30 miles North West of Aberdeen. Conditions
were near perfect with clear skies, a bright moon and light winds, which was a
relief to the organisers as the morning and early afternoon had seen torrential
rain and strong winds!
This year I tried
a system which was last used in 1998/9, there was be a number of very
short sections followed by a long section (20miles+) through which you will
have to navigate from code point to code point. These code points were
different to the usual code boards and at each code point the number told you
which clue to use for the next portion of the section, all clues were issued at
the TC preceding each long section.
The short sections had relatively easy navigation,
but being short there is not much time available, the hope being that this
would be more enjoyable than the high difficulty clues usually used to get a
result, we would do the whole event like this but we would find it hard to get
enough marshals.
Rally HQ was at the Scout Centre in Methlick,
which is a very nice building with underfloor heating, a fully equipped kitchen
and smart toilets. The only problem at the start was that the lettings manager
forgot about us and did not show up to let us in until 7:30, 2 hours late!
Nevertheless competitor signing on was done out of the back of my pick up,
whilst the marshals signed on in the cab at the front!
All was looking good, I had enough marshals to
able to put a Judge of Fact out to
police a QZ where we had a PR problem, and all controls were covered with every
marshal crew doing two controls. The field was led away by Dave
Mackintosh/Duncan Cameron at1931 hrs.
About an hour later I was talking with Graeme
Thomson, the scrutineer, and he was asking how the Expert clues
worked........in the course of explaining TC1-2 clue I suddenly realised that
it was wrong, the map reference to find a codeword needed to decode the clue
was incorrect , total panic, it was too late to do anything about it so I just
had to wait for the competitors to appear at the finish and prepare for the
inevitable flak.
In the end everyone was very forgiving and the
event was enjoyed by nearly all the competitors, the exceptions were Harry
Merry/ Graham Couser who had a miserable evening, the mistake on TC1-2 really
set them back and they became very dispirited, Johnnie Mackay, navigating for
his dad was doing very well until part way through the first long section when
mal-de-mer set in and they had to abandon – maybe seasickness pills next time!
We supplied soup, sandwiches, cakes and tea and
coffee back at the Scout Centre, while we worked out the results, and all was
going well until a circuit breaker tripped plunging us into stygian darkness
(luckily the emergency lights came on so we could find our way around).Despite
the attempts of three professional engineers and an electrician we could not
persuade the breaker to re-engage so the end of proceedings was done by the
light of head torches, all very cosy!
The results are attached and the competition was
quite close but once Duncan Cameron had got over the problems of TC1-2, and a
mistake on TC3-4 he and Dave only dropped 3 minutes over the rest of the rally.
The error on TC1-2 caused some time to be dropped but on inspection at the end
of the day it did not affect the result,
Stonehaven DMC Hairst Rally 24/10/2015 |
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Driver |
Navigator |
Class |
Time |
Codes |
Tot Pen |
Position |
1 |
Dave Mackintosh |
Duncan Cameron |
Expert |
19 |
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19 |
1 |
2 |
Colin Christie |
Gordon Reid |
Expert |
26 |
15 |
41 |
2 |
3 |
Harry Merry |
Graham Couser |
Expert |
118 |
75 |
193 |
DNF |
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4 |
Martin Farquhar |
Paul Cummins |
Novice |
14 |
120 |
134 |
1 |
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5 |
Stuart Cobb |
Douglas Stewart |
Clubman |
23 |
45 |
68 |
1 |
8 |
James Robertson |
Sandy Mitchell |
Clubman |
6 |
75 |
81 |
2 |
9 |
Stuart Thorburn |
Jo Widderson |
Clubman |
34 |
90 |
124 |
3 |
6 |
John Mackay |
Johnnie Mackay |
Clubman |
11 |
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Retired |
DNF |
2015 SCOTTISH NAVIGATIONAL RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP
24/25 Jan - Aquarius Rally - Kinross - Glenrothes MSC
7/8 Feb - Nuit Blanche Rally - Haddington - Edinburgh University MSC
7/8 Mar - Gropers Rally - Stonehaven - Stonehaven & District MC
11/12 Apr - Boontree Birl Rally - Dundee - 750 MC Scotland
22/23 Aug - Autumn Rally - Culloden - Highland CC
12/13 Sep - Countdown Rally - Carlisle - Spadeadam MC
25/26 Oct - Hairst Rally - Methlick - Stonehaven & District MC
TBC Nov - Early Winter Rally - Jedburgh - Border Ecosse CC
2015 SCOTTISH HISTORIC ROAD RALLY CHALLENGE
1 March - Saltire Rally - Birnam - Saltire RC
2-3 May - Berwick Rally - Berwick-upon-Tweed - Berwick & District MC
14 Jun - Great Glen Rally - Fort William - Highland CC
28 June - Lake District Rally - Penrith - Wigton MC
20 Sep - Doonhamer Rally - Dumfries - South of Scotland CC
18 Oct - Solway Rally - Cockermouth- Wigton MC
2015 SCOTTISH TARGA ROAD RALLY CHALLENGE
1 Mar - Saltire Rally - Birnam - Saltire RC
2-3 May - Berwick Rally - Berwick-upon-Tweed - Berwick & District MC
10 May - Grierson & Graham Rally - Dumfries - South of Scotland CC
7 Jun - TBC Rally - TBC - East Ayrshire
14 Jun - Great Glen Rally - Fort William - Highland CC
28 Jun - Lake District Rally - Penrith - Wigton MC
TBC - TBC Rally - TBC - Border Ecosse
TBC - TBC Rally - TBC - Solway
16 Aug - Blue Streak Rally - TBC - Spadeadam
20 Sep - Doonhamer Rally - Dumfries - South of Scotland CC
18 Oct - Solway Rally - Cockermouth - Wigton MC