January 11th, 2016
Grant Construction Knockhill Stages 2016 Rally Report
Grant Construction Knockhill Rally Report
Photos by eddiekellymotorsportphotograph.epageuk.com
On a cold wet, sleet, snow, and fog covered Knockhill Race Circuit on January 10th 2016, three hopeful South of Scotland Car Club crews braved the element with their many followers, to compete in the 1st round of the Blackwood Plant Hire Scottish Tarmack Rally Championship, STRC for short.
Starting Car number 3 Ian Paterson/Allan Paterson in the Craigiebank Garage sponsored Subaru Impreza 2000cc, got off to a slow start due to losing his power steering on Stage 1, and had to do without it for the rest of the day, as the day went on the weather didn’t lift much, and conditions were tricky all day, causing the Subaru crew on Stage 6 into a half spin on the twisty car park area on the highest point of the circuit which barely cleared with thick fog all day.
But a good day was had by both crew members who finished 4th Overall & 1st in class5 and some top points in the championship out of 49 finishers.
Car 10 was Stephen Thompson/David Crosbie in the AMD Contract Services sponsored Ford Escort Mk2 1800cc ,who started steady on stage1 due to also losing their power steering for the remainder of the day ,then setting a 6th fastest stage time on stage 2, then stage 3 completed stage and came into service with a rear puncture .
Throughout the rest of the day they were setting some top 10 fastest times, to finish, 10th Overall and 1st in class 3
Car 61 Chris Kemp /Stephen Kemp in the Thistle Private Investigations (Dumfries) sponsored Peugeot 205,started stage 1 and within the stage had a bad misfire which plagued them to the end of the stage, then stage 2 which they received an nominal time due to an accident on the stage.
So moving onto stage3, they thought they had cured the misfire, but it returned for this stage along with gear linkage problems, which saw an early retirement to their rally.
So not a bad day for South of Scotland Car Club crews.