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Newcomers Alistair and Colin Inglis made an immediate impression on their first rally of this year\u2019s campaign, the DCC Stages.\u00a0 Driving a Lotus Exige, the guys from Montrose were on the pace with a fifth fastest time over the opening 5.9 mile test.\u00a0 The greasy surface soon offered a dry line and the boys pushed on to hold third place at the half way point of the rally.\u00a0 With the afternoon stages being run in a clockwise direction, more time was gained even though light drizzle arrived for the penultimate stage.\u00a0 The Inglis\u2019 were just 2 seconds adrift of the rally leader going into the final stage but were overhauled by the eventual rally winner in his Subaru Impreza.\u00a0 It appears that the 4-wheel drive of the Japanese car provided the better grip in the worsening slippy conditions.\u00a0 Still a joint runner up place, refined to 3rd<\/sup>\u00a0overall on the fastest over first stage decider, was still a cracking result.\u00a0 Factor in that both Alistair and Colin played their jokers for the rally and they open their accounts to stand in 6th<\/sup>\u00a0place in both overall tables.\u00a0 A crew to keep an eye on as the year develops \u2026<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Our second placed driver was Neil Thompson in his \u2018new\u2019 Vauxhall Corsa kit car.\u00a0 It was but a bare shell a week earlier but a few late nights and fuel issues later; the car was ready to go on Saturday morning.\u00a0 Thirteenth quickest over the opening slippy test and everything was still working.\u00a0 The only problem to report all day was a broken rose joint on the nearside front suspension but that was quickly fixed.\u00a0 Steady progress up the leaderboard would see Neil and the non-registered Alan Cowan, end the day 2nd<\/sup>in class and 7th<\/sup>\u00a0overall – a cracking result.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n And 2 places further back were Gareth White and Harry Marchbank in a Peugeot.\u00a0 This was a R2 variant of the French company\u2019s 208 version and similar to Neil, it was new to Gareth less than a month before the event.\u00a0 A lot of hard work had the car in pristine condition for the opening stage but it\u2019s a shame it didn\u2019t stay that way for long. \u00a0 Driving with his usual flat out style, it wasn\u2019t long before Gareth\u00a0was hitting just about every bale in the stage !\u00a0 A little cosmetic damage to the front panel \/ wing will soon fix and the boys from St Boswells will be ready to go again soon.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Next up in 11th<\/sup>\u00a0overall were Kenny Moore and Richard Wardle in the rare Hillman Avenger.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t a throwback to the early 1970s as this was an Avenger Tiger 2 door bodyshell but with all the modern machinery that makes it the \u2018wolf in sheep\u2019s clothing\u2019.\u00a0 Kenny had a clean run and reported no issues, just a need to buy more door mirrors ripped off by passing bales.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Next up were the husband and wife team from Inverbervie, Tom and Sue Hynd.\u00a0 They wheeled out another unusual rally car in their Renault Clio.\u00a0 Tom wasn\u2019t too happy with the braking performance in the morning but a change of pads after the first pair of tests helped his cause.\u00a0 The only other concern was the need to change a gearbox mounting and this was easily done during the lunch break.\u00a0 A steady run to 17th<\/sup>\u00a0overall was reward for an unfamiliar venue.\u00a0 Finishing in 27th<\/sup>\u00a0place and collecting yet another good haul of points were Kevin Mathers and Craig Forsyth.\u00a0 Another pairing from the \u2018boys from the borders\u2019 clan had a little gearbox issue in the morning\u2019s 4 stages but some \u2018blacksmith engineering\u2019 had the little Peugeot 205 running happy again for the remainder of the day.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Garry Laverick \/ Phil Kenny continued the learning experience with their Ford Puma and were setting some consistent times.\u00a0 They lost quite a few seconds on the first slippy, stage and then a big lock up with some ambitious braking after a long sweeping section of the third test.\u00a0 No major damage to car or stage furniture was recorded and more good time in the seat is a plus.\u00a0 Another husband and wife pairing, this one being Nigel and Helen Harkness, were next in their Vauxhall Corsa.\u00a0 The were credited with a maximum stage time after some confusion in the car at a stage split and they ended up completing only 2 laps of SS4.\u00a0 They pressed on though and still managed to scare themselves at the chicane \/ jump over bridge on stage 6 but made it to the finish in one piece and 38th<\/sup>\u00a0position.\u00a0 Our final placed contender was Ann Forster sitting alongside the non-registered Neil Raven.\u00a0 Neil\u2019s Peugeot 106 goes in near standard trim and their worries about tyre choice was added to with the car jumping out of 2nd<\/sup>\u00a0gear. It kept the service crew busy in the afternoon making regular adjustments.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We have a long list of retirements this time, which includes our championship leading driver, Barry Renwick.\u00a0 Barry was teamed up Paul Hughes but they had an electrical problem meaning the car wouldn’t start and when it did, it kept cutting out.\u00a0 They only managed the opening stage before retiring.\u00a0 Jane Nicol was sitting alongside the non-registered Andrew Gallacher and they called it a day after the second stage with fuel surge issues.\u00a0 Ed Todd and Andy Brown\u2019s hopes of repeating last year\u2019s giant killing result evaporated on stage 3 when loose engine and gearbox mounts were discovered on the GTM and this caused them to finally lose the clutch.\u00a0Stephen Thompson \/ David Crosbie never made it out of the first stage after a problem with the starter motor reared it\u2019s head.\u00a0 Andrew Falconer\u2019s run with the non-registered Jamie Smith ended on the first stage too when the cambelt lost all it\u2019s teeth.\u00a0 Nigel and Callum Atkinson lasted until the sixth test when they were forced to retire from 10th<\/sup>\u00a0place overall when the diff of the Mitsubishi Evo packed in.\u00a0 Barrie Thomson and Jerry Hettrick decided to go home at lunchtime despite their Citroen C2 going well in 20th<\/sup>\u00a0place. Tom Middlemiss \/ Richard Stewart were forced out on the second test after a heavy landing broke a CV joint and hub bearing.\u00a0 Steve Irwin got stuck in SS3 when the gearbox in his Vauxhall Nova broke.\u00a0 Chris McCallum withdrew in service after stage 3 with a cracked diff casing on his Ford Escort whilst lying in 17th<\/sup>\u00a0position.\u00a0 Stuart Walker and Jack Morton retired while in the queue to start the first test after lunch, a change in the engine note causing big worries.\u00a0 And our final retirement was the current champion driver Nigel Feeney.\u00a0 His new Subaru Impreza was making good progress and up to 5th<\/sup>\u00a0after SS5 when a fuel pump issue caused he and Shona Hale to retire in stage.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n A big mention to Graham Provost and his team at Dunfermline Car Club for a well run rally.\u00a0 They provided more variation and a challenge for our championship contenders within the road complex of the former Ingliston race circuit and Royal Highland Showground.\u00a0 The roads may be different from other events but are still there to be driven.\u00a0 The improved facilities of the Highland Hall for rally headquarters were a bonus too.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We\u2019ve now done 4 events and already we\u2019re at the halfway point of our championship year.\u00a0 The early runaway leaders in the quest for the driver\u2019s title, Barry Renwick and Paul Swift, haven\u2019t continued to pick up points at the same rate as Kevin Mathers, Alistair Hutchinson, Mark Constantine and Alistair Inglis.\u00a0 These 4 drivers are covered by just 5 points and very much still within catching distance of the top 2.\u00a0 Across in the co-driver\u2019s table it\u2019s a similar story as Steve Dargan and Jessica Swift are still out front while Richard Wardle, Andrew Constantine, Craig Forsyth and Colin Inglis are just 4 points apart.\u00a0 While in the classes, it\u2019s still all to play for with no one monopolising their particular class.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Our mid-season break kicks in now as we all have 10 weeks to get ready for round 5 which is the Summer Stages.\u00a0 Once more Glenrothes Motor Sport Club will be running the event at Crail and although the organisers are still finalising the details, we can expect in the region of 60 competitive miles in 6 stages.\u00a0 The Regulation are expected to be published in early May and the link for more information is\u00a0www.glenrothes-msc.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Newcomers Alistair and Colin Inglis made an immediate impression on their first rally of this year\u2019s campaign, the DCC Stages.\u00a0 Driving a Lotus Exige, the guys from Montrose were on the pace with a fifth fastest time over the opening…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[28,14,36,13,8,34,7],"post_series":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/asperformance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/asperformance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/asperformance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asperformance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asperformance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=888"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/asperformance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":890,"href":"https:\/\/asperformance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888\/revisions\/890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/asperformance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asperformance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asperformance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=888"},{"taxonomy":"post_series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asperformance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_series?post=888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}