The championship consists of four Rally Time Trials, each round run on a gravel special stage, and open to drivers with National B or above Special Stage licences, in log-booked stage rally cars.
No navigators or passengers are allowed (which keeps the insurance cost down) but cars may be double entered.
Registration for the championship is free.
Championship Regulations and Registration Forms are in the downloads section below.
The final round in the championship was held in Skeabost
Forest on the Isle of Skye and had 22 entries. Running in the opposite direction from last
year was well received and made the event safer.
First Paddy Munro 83 points
As inspection of the full results
table will reveal very few of the competitors competed on more than 2 rounds, a
lot only did one round which is why there are several multi-way ties in the
Class classifications. It is hoped that the return of HCC’s Fort Augustus RTT
next May will encourage a bit more interchange between the events.
“I‘m not going to tear a strip off you at this exact moment,
but you can be guaranteed that I‘ll be bringing it up in the future, and
probably using it as some kind of bargaining chip” said the look on Tegan‘s
face as I confessed I‘d bought my second competition car in the space of
forty-eight hours. This was my brilliant way of finally killing off my 2010 –
2014 ‘year out’ from motorsport. Having a few jars too many, firing up the
internet machine and buying £500 worth of Dutton Autotest car was one thing.
Throwing another three grand at an Ecosse-spec Peugeot 205GTi a day or so later
was quite another. They may not sound like big numbers, but still potential dynamite
in the ears of a pregnant woman, especially given my efforts to curtain her
spending on unnecessarily fancy baby stuff to that point. Eek.
But that‘s all by the by. I‘d been planning to have a crack
at the RTT championship for a while, albeit hiring Roy Maclennan‘s 205, as I‘d
done on the 2014 Granite City and SDMC RTT. Both had gone quite well and fixing
the side effects of my efforts hadn‘t quite sent Roy over the edge. The news
that rallying had put an end to reverse seeding, however, did. So, about two
days before the first round on Mull, I‘m accepting Roy‘s kind first refusal on
a rally car plus a good few seasons worth of accumulated spares. A no brainer,
really. At least now I could just expect to be ruthlessly mocked for bringing
it back a different shape, as opposed to getting a 205 driveshaft round the
head.
So why the RTT championship? Basically, I‘d come up with a
cash figure that I could realistically spend on a year‘s motorsport while still
keeping the wife and building society on side. A few sums later it looked like
either one stage rally and a good lash-up afterwards, the RTT championship or a
couple of arrive-and-drive deals in the Scottish Minis or similar. Obviously,
gravel beats tar hands-down, and it‘s better to have a year worth of sport than
a one-off event. Plus, being a navigator who‘s still just dipping his toe in
the driving water, the format of the RTTs appealed to me. Do something daft
early on and it‘s no big deal – you get recovered and continue, so long as the
car‘s ok. Go off early enough in a stage rally and usually you‘re back in the
bar before they‘re even allowed to serve alcohol. Plus, multiple goes at a
single stage gives a novice like me a better opportunity to explore their own
limits as well as those of the car. Not to mention there‘s not a fraction of
the general bother of a stage rally in an RTT. No mental arithmetic errors get
you penalised and ruin your result. You don‘t go OTL if you have a car problem
to sort, you get fixed and get back out for as many of your runs as you can.
And nobody‘s going to protest you for letting your car roll backwards a foot
within distance of a time control. No bulls**t, just jump in and drive.
Perfect.
Making my budget numbers look even better was getting Pete
at Stark Motorsport on board. Instead of getting an old beater of a van of 4x4
for a tow hack or hiring one for each round, Pete gave me a very reasonable
rate (you can call him for a quote!) to transport and service the car on each
event, as well as most likely get roped in to kick the occasional tyre between
rounds. Multiple birds taken out with one stone, and no small ask considering
that most of the rounds aren‘t exactly local.
Alan Scott Photography
Round 1 - March 28th, Glengorm Castle RTT, Isle of Mull
Mull Car Club
So, with the metaphoric ink still wet on the
not-yet-returned V5C, off to the west we went. There had been a few last minute
things to sort with the car, but it was just about in fit state to go play.
Although with my follicle issues we couldn‘t find a fine tooth comb anywhere in
the shed, let alone run one over the car. So the goal was to try to have a good
days sport, try not to break anything, and put a bit more effort into the prep
for the next round. But having said that, going, stopping and steering were all
fine, so no reason to pussyfoot around either.
The Mull round was unique in that everyone got an untimed
recce run through the stage as well as the opportunity to walk the course. I
did both and I‘m glad I did. Run in the
grounds of a private castle estate, it‘s half farm track, half forest stage.
And it‘s tight and narrow with lots of blind corners and crests, and lots of
big drops off the side of the road. Definite potential for something to go
fairly wrong. And of course, because it‘s Mull in March, it‘s dark and wet,
too. Definitely glad we didn‘t stay in MacGochans too long the night before.
The first run was nothing more than a slightly more spirited
copy of the recce run, I‘m not ashamed to say. It had been almost a year since
I‘d driven the car on gravel and I was happy to ease myself back into the swing
of things. Although there was a rear end knock developing so I took the option
of nipping into ser-vice to get it checked instead of going straight out for my
second run. Turns out I‘m missing a rear caliper bolt. And inevitably, it‘s
about the only Peugeot 205 bolt we didn‘t have with us. With lunch planned
be-tween runs 2 and 3, we decided to torque up the one remaining bolt and
proceed. The direction of disc travel would hold the caliper roughly in place,
so long as I didn‘t reverse at any point on the approach road or the stage! Got
through the run intact and without anything else falling off, and managed to
improve my time by 3 or 4 seconds which I was happy with, given I‘d made a
complete mess of a chicane and cost myself some time.
So while everyone else was sitting down to lunch, we were
off back into Tobermory to raid the spare bolts bin at Mackays garage.
Eventually found one that could just about do the job, gratefully handed over a
tenner and headed back to Glengorm. By the time we got back, the stage had claimed
David Wilson‘s Mk2 Escort which had slid off and went over onto the roof. He
was ok but the car wasn‘t going back out. Anyway, the surrogate bolt was fitted
successfully and we were good to go again. Oh, and it was really dinging down
with rain again by this time, of course. So with a decent idea of where the
stage went by now, I managed to turn up the wick a bit and knock another 6
seconds or so off my time. The chicane, however, was still proving my nemesis.
Kept going too deep on the way and having to drop to 1st gear to get back out.
With the weather deteriorating, and the muddy surface
washing away to reveal slippery shiny stone in places, I‘d decided that I‘d
wind my neck in the rest of the day, and just use the last two runs to get some
seat time without being too daft. That was the plan until I got through the
chicane perfectly – bonny drift in, flick it round, bonny drift out and snatch
3rd straight away. Reckoned that was worth 3 or even 4 seconds
improvement. So, a new plan was hatched
and I went on the attack again. All was going well until I got too ballsy over
a crest into an L7. Just too quick, and had to stomp on the brakes and arrived
backwards. With a big drop outside into trees it would have been a re-shell job
for sure, but I managed to just-about get it round the corner by burying the
throttle and keeping the steering on the lock-stops. However, the car was doing
about 5mph sideways, and the front wheels were doing about 60mph scrabbling to
keep me from going over the edge, so by the time they found grip again, the car
shot across the track and off the other side of the track and into a bog.
Embarrassing, yes, but I‘m still counting it as a save. Got recovered
So, having had a lucky let-off, I decided I would do the
last run, but would probably take it easy as there was little hope of
improvement with the track getting slower. And take it easy I did, but still
managed to throw it off. I slowed right down for the Crest > L7, however
this ruined my rhythm completely, I got on some muddy stuff on the outside of
the following straight and slid off into a bank. Which thankfully was nice and
soft, so only minor damage (valance, bumper, bent front panel) was sustained. Time
to put it back on the trailer I think.
So, astonishingly, my third run was good enough for fourth
overall and first in class. Basically .best of the rest. behind a quick Mk2 and
two Evos. Chuffed doesn‘t cover it, and that‘s before they gave me a minia-ture
Tobermory 10yo malt with my trophy. It was only the driver of that Mk2 Liam
Wood and myself that had registered for the championship, so after round one I
found myself second (and also last!) in the RTT championship. But by way of a
reality check, Liam‘s first very first timed run was quicker than anything I
managed (or probably COULD have managed) all day. Some going.
Round 2 – May 9th, Stravaigers Lodge RTT, Fort Augustus
Highland Car Club
“No worries – take your time coming up, and we‘ll scrutineer
you when you get here”.
These were the words of Michelle Falconer and Andy Jardine
from HCC. The day or so leading up to the second round of the championship
hadn‘t been easy. My wife Tegan, growing more pregnant by the day, had been
having a tough time and had been diagnosed with pre-eclampsia. This is a
potentially danger-ous condition for mum and baby so every precaution was being
taken, including her being admitted to hospital just before we were meant to be
leaving. Or at least, heading into the workshop to finish all the stuff we‘d
procrastinated about but not actually fixed since Mull, and then leaving. I‘d
decided to cancel the rooms and pull the entry, but Tegan told me to hold on
until the last minute before doing anything too hasty. The rooms were cancelled
and I let Michelle and Andy know there was a good chance I wouldn‘t be coming.
Luckily the nightshift Doctor‘s rounds were quite positive and I got wife
approval to go and play. At 3am I rang Pete and let him know we were good to
go. We let Michelle know by text that we were on our way and were told they‘d
work things around us. Again, not something you‘re likely to hear on an SRC
round. Thanks guys.
So, we got there in one piece as planned, and unloaded the
trailer. This is usually the precursor for the heavens to open, but no.
Glorious sunshine. Might actually get the chance to drive the car on dry gravel
for the first time. Pete got the car through scrutineering while I was at the
drivers brief, and running num-ber five I was straight off to the start.
Perfectly timed. So, with most of the car having been in bits, and not driven
since Mull apart from onto the trailer this morning, the first run was a proper
driving Miss Daisy af-fair. Plus, having never been in Inchnacardoch forest
before I had no idea where I was going. But I will admit I just wasn‘t feeling
it, and kept wondering what I was doing here. Remarkably, I wasn't last. Maybe
about 3rd or 4th last. The car was going ok, apart from feeling a little
snatchy at the front, i.e. lurching when changing direction. Possibly something
still bent after Mull that we didn't spot.
Run two felt better, but the heart was still pretty far from
being in it. The goal was simply to bag a few points in the championship and
live to fight another day. It seemed like a sensible compromise to push on
along the straight bits (of which there are lots) but not be too daft in the
corners. This seemed to build a decent rhythm although lack of seat time in the
car was still proving an issue; I never seem to be able to change down from 3rd
to 2nd after a while out of the car, always seem to get 4th no matter how hard
I try. As far as the stage is concerned it‘s an absolute cracker. There's only
one tightened corner around a bale, everything else is 3rd and 4th gear and
reasonably visible by the time you get there. I surprised myself by taking a
whole 14 seconds off my time, putting me roughly in the top half of the
amalgamated classes 1, 2 & 3, roughly 4 or 5 seconds off the quickest guys.
I needed to make a quick stop in service as the new brake
bias valve that I thought I'd fixed was evidently still not right, and was
losing fluid. Pete waved an 11mm spanner over it and made the problem go away.
Front end still seems to be a bit wayward and possibly even getting worse, but
nothing that couldn't be lived with for now. With the stage cutting up and a rain
shower quite possible, it was quite likely everyone's 3rd run would be their
quickest. Time to grow a pair and chap on a bit.
Run three was really good. I got a wee bit untidy going
round the bale hairpin (probably looked good but the big drift wasn't exactly
planned) but managed to keep the right cog selected the whole way round and
hence keep the thing going a bit better. Momentum is king when you only have
115-ish ponies to play with. Dead happy with the run and pretty fair to say
I‘ve properly got the bug for dry gravel as opposed to mud-plugging. You know
when you've had a good run when it's only two miles long and you're still out
of breath by the end. Either that or you just need to hit the gym a bit more
often. The times for Run 3 went up and I've knocked another 7 seconds off my
time, sneaking me into the lead of the class by 0.3 seconds. Which felt pretty
good, although I was pretty sure that I couldn't go too much quicker myself
without starting to take liberties.
Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, the phone rang before
I could get too brave. The dayshift doctor was not quite as optimistic as his
colleague and there was a real possibility Tegan could be induced that day. So
it was time to pack up and head home.
The final result put me in 17th overall out of 27 runners, but it wasn‘t
a day or a stage where I could get near any 4WD cars. I‘d have to change my
name to Liam and get an old Escort, as he managed 6th overall right in among
the quick stuff. Again, some going. In the end I dropped to third in class with
everyone else improving on their fourth run. A tenth behind David Hunter in
another 205GTi and a tenth again behind John Mackintosh in a Toyota MR2. Good
close com-petition and encouraging to be there-or-thereabouts with people in similar
machinery. Could I have gone quicker with an extra run? Possibly, but it‘s also
very likely that it would have ended in tears, given recent form. In terms of
the Championship it was another solid second behind Liam on corrected times,
but ahead of Colin Baxter‘s Impreza and Eric Falconer‘s 205GTi as they joined
the championship.
Round 3 – 12th July, Alford Sprint
Grampian Automobile Club
Unfortunately my home round at Coneyhatch was cancelled due
to the Aberdeen Western Peripheral route going straight through the track. It
was far from a fast and flowing stage but it was a venue where a small car can
get closer to quicker machinery due to the tight confines and short straights,
so it‘s a shame to see it go. But kudos to Gerry Potter for getting MSA and
competitor approval to replace this round with the GAC Alford Sprint. It wasn‘t
quite the usual fare for the RTT guys but a day‘s sport of any kind is better
than losing a round.
Speaking of last minute additions, Tegan successfully baked
our bun all the way to 37 weeks which is considered pretty much full term, so
by the time Alford came around I had a healthy little 5lb 11oz apprentice to
get trained up. Hopefully rallying is still on the go by the time Esmé turns
17!
At the Alford Transport Museum we were greeted by sun and
blue sky. Unfortunately, having given Pete the day off from service duties, I
drove the car to the venue and was also greeted by a flat tyre on arrival. I only
had one grotty spare for emergencies so it got pressed into service on the
right rear. But other than fitting a set of road tyres and removing the sump
guard, the car was exactly the same as when it left Inchnacardoch.
Having never done one of these sprints before the main
concern was figuring out exactly how the starting procedure works, remembering
exactly what route to take around the figure-of-eight track, and try not to get
fruity with any hay bales. In the end it was all fairly straight forward. I‘ve
never been keen on tarmac so was trying to be as smooth as possible and hope
that translated to a decent time. In the grand scheme of things my times were
pretty pathetic compared to the regular sprinters with big BHP and sticky tyres
etc, but fairly consistent. Two of these runs were timed, the best of which was
a 65.26 second run. Almost a full ten seconds down on the class record, but
enough to collect an overall win as far as the RTT championship was concerned.
Colin Baxter in the Impreza had actually recorded a quicker
time, but the RTT Championship runs a class-correction system to equalise the
results between smaller, larger and 4WD cars. By the time this was applied, I‘d
been promoted to first, with Eric second and Colin back to third. Conspicu-ous
by his absence at Alford was previous championship leader Liam. So, going into
the final round, I suddenly found myself with a healthy points lead and the
champion-ship basically mine to lose.
Photo credit – Tegan Kemp
Round 4 – Skeabost RTT, Isle of Skye
Skye Rally Club
It did seem daft doing maths to figure out what I would need
to win or lose the championship given so few people registered for it, but I
have to admit I did the sums anyway. It boiled down to me turning up, and
putting a single competitive run on the board to seal the deal. The only way to
come sec-ond would be for Liam Wood to take the full 30 points and for me to
fail to score anything. How-ever, on arrival at the event, there was no Liam to
be seen, so that pretty much brought the issue to a close. However, maths has
never been my strong point so I wanted to put one solid run on the board at
least!
There was one minor issue which could have complicated
matters, however. A couple of days before heading up to Skye I got a phone call
from Eyeline Media who make Air an Rathad on BBC Alba. Gaelic Top Gear, if you
will. They had planned to film a piece about a recent BARS graduate from Lewis
making her debut on the event, but had crossed their wires about who was
providing the car. So basically, they were looking for someone daft enough to
let her share their car, as well as volunteer to be shadowed by a film crew all
weekend. The tenuous link between myself and Gaelic television was the
aforementioned Roy Maclennan who‘s graced Air an Rathad in the past. If it had
been anyone else asking the question the answer might have been different, but
Roy‘s been a great help in getting me started and set up rallying, so it would
have been bad form to refuse. Plus, I get to be on the telly. This was all on
the condition that I was given the opportunity to get a run in before hand-ing
over the keys – luckily the organisers had no issue with this!
Having watched various pieces of in-car video from Skeabost,
I had a good idea what we were in for. A fast, flowing stage with lots of
undulation and jumps. Although after a few accidents in previous years, the
biggest jump had been moved to after the flying finish, and three chicanes had
been added to reduce speeds. Still looked like a cracking stage though. I‘d
travelled up early on Friday with Tegan and Esmé with the intention of making a
long weekend of it and having our first family break together, with Pete due up
with the van and trailer later Friday evening. However, for one reason or
another, we missed the cut for Friday scrutineering, so my evening was pretty
much spent talking nonsense up the lens of a camera, oc-casionally taking a
break to give Pete a bollocking over the phone. I did get a lift back to
Portree from Mairi Ross, my new driving partner. I just hoped she wasn‘t
planning pedalling the 205 like she did her Focus ST on those back roads.
We scrutineered early Saturday morning, and heading to the
event everything looked in order. Telling Pete we‘d be on telly has resulted in
the car arriving covered in Stark Motorsport decals. Possibly the rea-son for
his late arrival? Anyway, it looked great. There was a good entry for the event
and I couldn‘t wait to get out. I decided I would retry my Fort Augustus
approach. Slow first run, attack the straights second run, then attack the
corners on the third. My first run was fine, although with two miles of stage
and roughly three miles of return road, we‘d probably need to do a fuel run at
lunchtime as I‘d not taken this into ac-count! The stage was impressive,
exactly as expected – fast bits, and lots of crests and jumps, and the addition
of the chicanes hadn‘t broken up the flow too much. Well done to the Skye Rally
Club for coming up with such a great stage.
The car was running great, so I gave Mairi a last minute
patronising pep-talk and helped her get strapped in. As she drove off to the
start line, Pete came up and congratulated me on my championship. I will admit
the thought was far from my mind as I watched my little yellow 205 disappear
into the distance! But credit to Mairi, she brought it back in one piece,
having got a steady run in the bag her first time out. With Eye-line‘s cameras
filling the car it‘s not as if she‘d be able to come up with an excuse for not
doing so!
So with the car running perfectly I got strapped in for my
second attempt. Following the plan, I would be attacking the straight bits, but
easing off for the corners and building confidence in the car and conditions.
The start of the stage is a big long straight then a chicane, then an easily
flat right then another straight bit. So I would be attacking pretty much all
of that before having to behave myself. My only excuse for what happened next
is that I got tunnel vision and just went a bit mental, or simply forgot the
plan by the time I got to a corner. As has been well documented by videos
posted on Facebook and Instagram, just over halfway into the stage I put it off
at the end of a straight into a long L8. I got the car sliding the wrong way
off a jump and by the time I‘d pointed it in the right direction for the
corner, I was off the outside and up a bank. Too fast, too soon and paid the
price.
There was no option of putting it off gently anywhere, all I
could see was piles of compacted hardcore so I had to keep the boot in and hope
for some temporary relaxation of the laws of physics. Which of course didn‘t
happen. I went shooting up a bank at unabated speed and took two or three hard
hits on what were either earth banks or a tree stump, still not sure. I‘d
pretty much resigned myself to going over, so had given up on the steering
wheel and braced for impact. I‘d braced with my foot still down on the
throttle, but as the various impacts had ripped both driveshafts out this didn‘t
really matter. By the time I came to rest nosing back onto the track I was
blurry-eyed, winded and had a lot of lower back pain. And still on the
throttle. Probably best to switch it off.
The marshals were on the scene literally in a few seconds.
They asked if I was ok or if I‘d need medical assistance. Much as it would put
a delay on the event‘s running I wasn‘t willing to take a chance. Sorry guys.
The SMMC Rescue guys and Doctor arrived quickly and started assessing things.
They planned to immobilize me on a spinal board, remove me from the car, then
transfer me to a land ambulance for a trip to hospital for x-rays. All of this
while dealing with a dickhead cracking jokes, taking the mick and gibbering
rubbish, as dickheads in a little bit of shock tend to do. They took their time
and did everything right, as you‘d expect from these guys. Constantly
reassuring and communicating and going through the motions, they quickly had me
into the ambulance and away from the scene of the crime.
As I was transferred into the land ambulance and off to
Broadford Hospital (Portree A&E don‘t do x-rays) I got to speak to Tegan
and give her a few toe twiddles to reassure her I was ok, had just tweaked my
back a little and everyone was being over-careful. In hindsight I don‘t think
she believed me. Either way, she looked pretty miffed that I‘d had the nerve to
hurt myself. She also wasn‘t too impressed at having to follow the ambulance
for 40 minutes to Broadford with Esmé protesting that she hadn‘t been fed. Oh,
and because she was seeing our first family holiday probably being spent at my
bedside. As it turned out, the x-rays showed that while I had fractured a
vertebrae, it was a stable and minor fracture so didn‘t need anything more than
pain-killers and rest.
I managed to get out of hospital the same day, and even
managed to make a brief appearance at the awards do to collect the RTT
championship trophy. And, most importantly, managed to enjoy a relaxed short
family break on Skye for the next few days instead of enduring a severe kicking
from Tegan. So, all‘s well that ends well. And as it turns out, the 205 might
actually be salvageable. Quite aside from the steering rack that snapped in
three places, the two broken driveshafts, two trashed bottom arms, flattened
front panel and right front wing, and the hub which had the bottom pinch-joint
snapped clean off it, in addition the right front wheel was pushed so far back
into the arch that it‘s forced the arch metalwork into the footwell, ripping it
clean away from the chassis leg. However, as the chassis leg is where it‘s
meant to be, we‘ll just beat everything else back to its original position and
seam weld it up. Winner.
So, as you can imagine I‘ve got quite a few people to thank
for what‘s been an incredibly enjoyable year of sport. First has to be Gerry
Potter for organising the championship. Unfortunately, despite good entries on
the RTT events themselves the championship was poorly supported this year, to
the point where the 2016 RTT championship could be the last one unless more
people register. I cannot for the life of me think why this series is not
booming. Yes, some of the rounds are a bit of a hike away, but let‘s face it,
the locations are all worth seeing, so there‘s definite po-tential for a nice long
weekend away with a bit of motorsport somewhere in the middle. Plus, the Mull,
Fort Augustus and Skye rounds have a wee shindig attached to each of them, so
plenty scope for beer and shenanigans – and I‘m sure SDMC could be persuaded to
put on a barn dance or BBQ if enough people ask nicely!
Another gripe people have about the RTTs is the cost per
stage mile. Ok, basic sums say that 6 runs x 2 mile stages at an average entry
fee of around £175 = £15 per stage mile. On an SRC round you might get nearer
to £10 per stage mile. But that‘s only
based on entry fees and doesn‘t factoring numerous other costs/hassles. Like no
route notes / safety DVD to pay for, no navigator to arrange, and the fact that
a set of tyres should last you a whole year. And that‘s not even taking into
account the fact that on a stage rally you‘re much less likely to get your full
amount of competitive mileage than on an RTT due to the format. Punctures,
silly little offs and minor car faults can put you clean out of a stage event.
Who‘s ever DNF‘d on the Speyside without even getting out of Cooper Park? I
have and it blows. On an RTT you either limp or get towed back to service, get
sorted and get back out. So you‘re much more likely to actually get your
intended stage miles in real world scenarios. Oh, and there‘s no significant
road mileage to endure and pay for either.
Another reason to give the RTTs a bash, especially for
smaller cars, is that your day is not affected by seeding posi-tion. Guys in
205s etc are not simply skipping from rut to rut on a surface that‘s trashed by
the time you get there, you‘re actually picking your own lines and driving your
own rally. The seeding on RTTs is largely irrelevant as there are fewer cars
going through, so the surfaces might only start to deteriorate towards the end
of the day. And even then, it‘s a level playing field as everyone is dealing
with the same conditions. Another boost for smaller cars is the class
handicapping system. Even if you can‘t quite match the bigger cars for outright
pace, if you can even get close you might find you‘re elevated above them in
the results once the sums are done.
Where was I before I went into PR mode? Oh yes, thanking
people. I simply wouldn‘t have been out this year if I‘d not had Pete‘s help. He
might know his way around a spanner but his inability to work maps and clocks
does remind me why I had to navigate for him years ago. But seriously, the best
thing about this year has been being able to just jump into the car and drive,
Pete doing everything else made this possible. Cheers pal. Now go straighten
the pug. A further shout-out to everyone else at Coneyhatch who mucked in,
helped, loaded vans, made tea etc etc, and also for Roy Mac for doing me a
great deal on the car to help me get started.
The event organisers and marshals as always deserve special
credit. I generally have a problem with any kind of authority but still didn‘t
manage to fall out with anyone all year. This should tell you how laid back and
helpful every-one has been on these events. The events themselves are fun but
it‘s these guys that make competing a pleasure.
And lastly thanks to my ever-understanding wife Tegan. Much
crap has been taken from me this year due to my need to go and play daft in a
little yellow car, usually while you‘re dealing with things much more
important. I really need to spoil you rotten. I heard Mull in March is a lovely
place for a wee family getaway….
So, in summary, not too shabby a first year driving.
Couldn‘t hold a candle to Liam even on corrected times though, and I‘m sure
David Wilson would have been very quick if he‘d not come to grief on Mull. But
therein lies the joy of committing to do every round. So, even with the offs
taken into account I‘m happy with my performances in the 205. Which is just as
well, because I swear I cannot drive that damned Dutton for toffee
Roy Kemp
The third round in the championship at Coneyhatch was cancelled due to works on the AWPR. The MSA approved a proposal to substitute the GAC Sprint at Alford as a scoring round in our championship to allow our registered competitors to score points .
The weather was great all day, with bright sunshine and light winds the rain only stating to come on when the last competitive runs had been completed.
Only three of our registered competitors were in Alford to contest the event, and all managed to score competitive runs.
Colin Baxter in his Impreza was the fastest of our registered competitors , but after the handicapping was applied Roy Kemp came out on top.
Championship registrations this year have been poor, with only 7 competitors registered.
The HCC round at Fort Augustus had 29 entries, by far the best of the season, of which 4 were registered.
The substitute event for the third round attracted only 3 registered competitors,
I hope to be able to report on the number entered for the Skye RTT at the meeting on 15th.
I have suggested to the organisers of the RTT rounds that we need to discuss the future of the Championship as the number of registrations is so low, and the number of competitors actually contesting the rounds is lower still.
Award Winners and Full Results for the Stravaigers, and championship positions, are available in the downloads section below.