D.C.C Crail Stages Rally
Saturday 22nd March 2008-04-06
Car 19
Gordon Winning & Robin Laird

The first round of the Scottish Tarmac Rally Championship and the forth round of the North of England  Tarmac Rally Championship was based at the picturesque village of Crail in the Kingdom of Fife. Only 110 miles from home, so a nice easy run to scruitineering, only we left a bit later than we had wanted, got caught in traffic and a couple of blizzards and were five minutes late arriving at the airfield. We tried our luck but the officials had to stick to the published schedule and we were turned away. I know how it is as I remember when I used to do noise test for the Weldex rally in Argyll. If you let one late person in you have to let another and so on, eventually you were there all night and missed your dinner and narrowed your drinking time!. Old memories.

We booked into the Craw’s Nest Hotel, our usual digs, and were surprised to find the whole organising team were staying there, causing car parking restrictions. I held an audience of insurance loss adjusters watching me try to reverse the transit and trailer uphill and round a corner! Thankfully Martin Luke moved his van and helped me out or I would still be there. Thanks.

We must have had one of the best rooms in the hotel. What a view from the quaint lounge! The Isle of May straight ahead and the Bass Rock away in the distance. We could see great big breakers pounding the pebbly beach and harbour.  We went down for a quick bite to eat and a lemonade before we put our heads down to dream the night away. (2 single beds of course!) The following morning was cold and not a cloud in the sky but as we drove east towards Crail we could see menacing snow filled clouds lurking on the horizon Would they stay away?

Even though it was before 7.00 it was already busy and trying to get some shelter from the bitterly cold North Easterly winds was foremost on the agenda. We eventually found a space next to the hanger. We unloaded in jig time, went for the noise test, and scruitineering, purchased and fitted 2 tyres from Ronnie Thom at Wheels Around followed by a quick cycle around the route and we were ready to go. People arriving were saying that they had driven through blizzards!  The entry was impressive, 7 6R4’s, 8 Evo’s, 10 Subarus, inc the WRC version of Barry Renwick. Therefore lots of competition, which was going to make it a very interesting day.

SS1
7.9 miles of good tarmac lay ahead as we slotted into our starting position. What a difference to see the front runners lining up closely in front of us. A big difference from the previous North West Stages where we were slotted in between Pugs and Nova’s  after the cancellation of SS1 for the later runners. We got the nod from David Turner, one of our service crew, that some of the guys in front of us were spinning at the first right corner, being caught out early on cold tyres probably being their excuse, so we were well warned. I gave a quick reminder to Gordon, as he was doing his upper body stretching exercises, at 30 seconds to go. ‘Treat this like a single venue’ was my advice - 3, 2, 1  GO! and we were away  “Left 1, 200, Right 6, Keep in………...” A quick glance up left a mental image of the marks previous runners like John Stone and others had made at the slippy right 6. We continued on into the first merge only to find a pool of oil in the breaking zone into the right entry chicane.  20 yards further on the first retirement of the rally - No 1 John and Jim Rintoul in their Evo 6, Out with a burst oil pipe. Tough luck chaps. “Right 6, 300, keep right, kiss grass, left 2, apex, narrow on inside of corner, then 600.”  This was our chance to open it up. Gordon wound her up the box, and we were soon hurtling along in 6th gear. but it seemed like a second later it was time to guess where to brake for the hairpin left.  “Loose on outside, Caution Bales!.” We continued on and passed No 6 of Barry Renwick and Old Bill in their Impreza WRC stopped at the side of the road. Another 2 miles and we passed No 18, Murdo Morrison, in his Ultra quick Toyota Starlet, also stopped at the side. The place was starting to look like a car park!. Then we passed a dead Darrian (Do not know who it was) on our second loop. The car was feeling strong and Gordon started to push a bit. We caught and passed No 24 Robert Davies in his Lancer 7 as he slowed, and to my surprise he took a left up the Short runway in front of us, making me to look at my map to make sure I was on the correct page!  He told me later that he saw us coming and he wanted to be well out of our way, as he was suffering gearbox problems Thanks. We caught a retiring (ECU problems) David Cochrane over the finish line.  Lots of casualties in the first stage.

We stopped the clocks on 8.39 – 14th overall. And 5th 2 wheel drive.

Bret Mitten, from Carlisle, in his lovely Mark 2 Escort, had beaten us by 3 seconds. So it looked that it would be a real fight all day with the times being so very close.

SS2
Same route as SS1 so we knew what to expect. Gordon kept the car going very steadily, being neat and tidy, even Ricky Wheeler, Mark 2 Escort Maestro retorted later he wasn’t being as flamboyant and crowd pleasing with his usual tail hanging out trademark style, and it was proving to be quicker being tidier. We passed another retiring Darrian and I also saw No 14 George Bryson limping out in a similar Mark 2. On looking out the window on a fast left down a straight, my eyes followed a set of skid marks left by a spinning Astra to its resting place. Well off into the field but now parked up safely out of harms way. We saw up ahead No 24, Lancer 7 of Robert Davies,  limping out along the straight. I am so glad he held his line because we were totally committed to pass him on the right and were flat out in 5th going for 6th,  at the time.  All the way from Swansea - a long way for him to come to retire on stage 2.  Tough luck.

28 seconds quicker 8.11.- 11th Quickest and up to 12 overall. Beating Brett by 2 seconds for him to be only 1 second in front of us now.

SS3
New route 7.4 miles.

A bit of snow fell but it did not lie.  Great - still dry. The route was definitely for cars with high top speed as we found out when no 9, Bruce Edwards, in his Darrian merged behind us and caught us. Gordon pulled left and let him by and he promptly thank us by smashing our windscreen with stones! We later found out we smashed his as well as he caught us. Sorry. I watched him power off in chase of Brett Mitton. It only took about 4 corners for him to be on his tail! And he looked to be loosing time trying to get by him.  Awesome! They both spilt different ways further on.

8.28  13th Quickest  now 9th overall. We beat Bret by 3 seconds, now we were 2 seconds in front of him going into the next stage.

SS4

Same as 3.  We filled her with more fuel because we were getting fuel surge round the fast sweeping corners, maybe loosing a second or so, and every second counts. A clean and tidy stage where we caught No 28 Lancer 7 of George Anderson. Thankfully he saw us coming and he pulled wide on the long left 2 letting us slide up his inside. Thanks.

8.21 12th Quickest. Bret beat us by 4sec though to go 1 sec infront of us, dropping us one place to 10th overall

SS5
8 miles stage length
A different starting point which meant we had to circulate in a mostly anti clockwise direction. This would even off the wear on the front tyres! The back tyre wear holding up well and hopefully would last the distance. A nice steady run.

8.40 10th Quickest. We beat Brett by a decisive 6sec to put us back up to 9th overall.

SS6
Last stage and with only 4 seconds between Brett and ourselves, we had to keep the pressure on. No heroics but still had to press on. We caught sight of Brett on our second lap at the merge and as I watched the gap at the split to the finish I reckoned he did not beat us by much, if any.
8.36 11th Quickest.

A quick check at results and we had done it. Both of us on the same time 8.36 beating him by only 4 seconds overall. How close can you get. Great sport and fun all day.

We were 9th overall and second two wheel drive. Bruce Edwards in the Darrian took the honours of first 2wd.

Thanks to our service crew David Turner, Stuart Bell and Brian Donnelly(Brian being roped in by Stuart at the last minute) for keeping the car tip top all day and braving the bitterly cold weather to do so. Also thanks to Francis and Jennifer for keeping us fed and watered all day. See you all at Ingliston for the Howford Hydraulics.