- Thacko
Granite City Attack!
You know it’s the start of the motor sport season when the Granite City Rally is on, it signals the start for all the local motorsport. The rally itself it staged in different areas of Aberdeenshire every year and so its always great to get the programme to see which stages they will run.
This year I wasnt sure on attending but after having my arm bent by Jay, i decided to make for SS5 at Durris.
The rally is run on forestry commission roads, its easy to follow to get a decent location for pictures. We went for a hairpin about 4 miles into the stage, the cars attacked the corner at well over 70mph (fwd) and probably 100mph ish (4wd) they slowed to around 25mph before a blast up the hill to the next corner some 3oo yards away.
As you can see alot of the pics are from similar locations due to the fact once the stage is running you would be stupid to walk around the area where the cars are hitting top speed, although some people did! stupidity imo.
So the Winners were? ………….. Dave Weston/Aled Davies in their Ford Focus
The runners-up were David Bogie/ Kevin Rae in their Mitsubishi Evo 9, the combo won the Scottish Rally Championship last year and were flying on the day unfortunately they were piped to the post.
My favorite car on the day though …………. Alister and Colin Inglis Evo III (im biased of course lol) but its great to see the old girl getting a fling around the rally, shame the guys had a mechanical issue at the start of SS6, im just glad they go to pass me on SS5.
Another car worth a mention just for the sheer epic noise which emanates from it is Andy Horne/Jim Howie’s Metro 6R4, I cant describe what it sounds like but EVERYONE knows when it is on stage!
Malcolm Buchanan/Iain Nicolls Mk2 Escort …………… oldskool rallying at its best!
Now unfortunately some entrants do crash ………………..
Rob Ashwell was one of the unlucky ones, i hate to think how they got this car off the tree stumps
Because I saw how Sean Will’s corsa was recovered and it wasn’t pretty lol
Luckily the marshalls at the GCR are well prepared
Thacko