Scottish pairing Alistair Tough and Alistair Mackay made the long journey from Inverness hoping for better success than the previous weekend when they crashed their brand new BARDON Aggregates; Ross-Shire Engineering sponsored Subaru Impreza N12 out of The Snowman Rally whilst in contention for overall honours.

The car was extensively damaged and doubtful that it could be repaired in time. The TEG Sport driver commented “ We won’t know how bad it is until we get the car stripped and on the jig, but we are hopeful that the tree did not hit the chassis leg and therefore is still straight. The main problem is that the car is so new that it will be very difficult to source parts,

Alistair said "I have no doubt that TEG Sport will have the car ready – they are an incredible team and if anyone can do it – they will “

His faith in TEG Sport was fully justified and the car was presented at Scrutinering in Bournemouth in pristine condition with many comments on the supreme effort that TEG Sport must have put in.

Whilst the car was repaired there was no time for testing or for fitting extras, it was with a little trepidation and everything crossed that they started the first two tarmac stages on Friday night. It was only two runs of a 1.5 mile stage ahead so the plan was just to get through these without incident and get the car prepared for the forests on Saturday when the real rally started. There had been no time to fit brackets etc. for spotlights so the stages were tackled with conventional lighting and a small oil leak which had developed on the oil cooler.

After stage 1 & 2 Alistair commented “ I’ve got to take my hat off to these boys, they have had a helluva week putting in incredible hours to get the car ready, even I had some doubts whether it was possible or not. They are going to have another late night tonight changing the oil cooler but the car is absolutely mint – not a single vibration and its handling a dream – I’m really looking forward to the forests tomorrow but I’m going to take it easy over the first leg and start off on part worn tyres to get the car sliding around a bit not only to get a feel for the car but to get the confidence back up. There will be no major heroics, we’re here to get a decent result and put some points on the board for the overall championship “

Even though after taking it easy over the opening 2 stages they started Saturday in 16th position o/a and 2nd. in class. As planned a steady run over the first 3 forests stages proved beneficial but they had dropped to 18th. position overall and 4th. in class. The car was checked over at service only requiring fuel, new tyres were fitted and the fight back begun with the PIRELLI shod car setting numerous top ten times.

On return to final service of the day they were in 9th. o/a and leading the class by a mere 1.1 seconds from local driver Anthony Wilmington with 3 stages left to complete. An overshoot on the spectator stage saw them drop 10 seconds to Anthony and unable to claw this back they finished the rally in 9th. position overall and 2nd. in class.

An upbeat Alistair after the rally said “ It’s been a great event with loads of spectators out in the forests. On the last spectator stage I tried to extend the class lead but overshot a junction and stalled the engine which cost me 10 seconds. I managed to take 4 back in the next stage but with 5 miles to go and needing to take 7 seconds off Anthony there was little point on having a last stage charge and risk throwing everything away. Anthony’s no slouch and knows these forests very well so we decided to bag the points and get a result for the team. All in all it’s been a very good event and we’ve got a decent result. It’s also been very competitive and looks like there will be some good tussles on future rounds.

Result : 9th. o/a 2nd. in class
1st. GrpN Subaru
Next Event : Malcolm Wilson Rally 11th. March

Next ANCRO Championship event : Border Rally 18th. March

Picture: Alistair Tough ~ Alistair Mackay Subaru Impreza
Courtesy of Ian Hardy   http://www.ianhardy.net/