BRC / RD4 / GRAMPIAN RALLY 2024
28/08/2024WORDS BY ANDY COOK | PHOTOGRAPY BY BRITISH RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP
The Motorsport UK, Probite British Rally Championship has reached the halfway point in its 2024 season. As the crews descended on the Scottish town of Stonehaven for Round 4, The Voyonic Grampian Forest Rally (9th & 10th August) the race for the title would heat up.
The most northerly event of the series, first ran as the Grampian in 2016 and is now in its eighth year. Organised by the Stonehaven and District Motor Club, this small team of passionate and dedicated motorsport fanatics would bring the event back to the British Championships calendar once again, having been dropped in favor of a trip across the channel to Ypres, Belgium last year.
The Stonehaven and District Motor Club was first established back in 1952 after the Second World War. A founding member of the North Wast Motor Clubs Group, the team also has a range of other grassroots motorsport events under their belt, including the Hairst Navigational Road Rally.
Last year (a round of the Scottish Rally Championship), the event was won by David Henderson in a Ford Fiesta Rally2. Previous to that, in 2022, when the Grampian was last part of the BRC, Irishman Keith Cronin took the win in his VW Polo GTi. Matthew Wilson, son of M-Sport boss Malcolm also appears etched on the trophy, having peddled a Ford Fiesta Rally2 car to the win when he last competed in the British Championship in 2021.
This year would see an expansion of the event to a two-day affair; from its Rally HQ at Milton Crathes, a total of 56 miles, across 9 gravel stages (some which you could describe as idden gems), would appear on the agenda.
“I used to love the rally up here (The Granite City), there are some great stages”, “There are so many classic stages with a lot of different characteristics and so you’ve got a bit of everything, I have some good memories of the rally”
Malcolm Wilson
Last time out on the tarmac at the Jim Clark Rally, Cronin finally picked up his first BRC win of the season, bringing himself back in the game, whilst Championship rival, Chris Ingram crashed out of the rally on the second day of the Duns-based event. Mr Consistent, William Creighton would, however, be sitting pretty at the top of the standings arriving in Stonehaven, having secured his third second-place finish on the Jim Clark in his M-Sport Ford Fiesta Rally2.
BRC1
The rally would get underway on Friday evening with two tests in the Fetteresso and Drumtochty Forests. A 6.9-mile test named Hurlie Bog would open up the proceedings and Championship leader heading into the event, Wiliam Creighton would be the quickest horse out of the stables in his M-Sport steed. The young Irishman in his Motorsport Ireland backed Works prepared Ford Fiesta Rally2 stopped the clocks just 0.7 seconds quicker than our Round 2 – Rallynuts Stages winner, Osian Pryce in the Hills Ford backed Ford Fiesta Rally2.
Photo: William Creighton & Liam Regan | Source: British Rally Championship
Rounding out the top three on the opening test was Chris Ingram, piloting the second Melvyn Evans Motorsport run Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 for his first BRC outing in the Castrol Oil livered machine. Although Chris did compete at and win the non-BRC Championship Nicky Grist Stages in July, using the event as his gravel shakedown for his new ride, it was still a very new bit of kit for the ex-European Rally Champ.
Photo: Chris Ingram & Alex Kihurani | Source: British Rally Championship
The second and final test (SS2 Finglennie) of the opening leg was a shorter 5.3-mile blast through the Drumtochty Forest, and Pryce was topping the timing sheets with a stage win, despite being under the impression that he didn’t drive as well as the first one.
Photo: Osian Pryce & Rhodri Evans | Source: British Rally Championship
“We had a good run on the first stage and drove quite well. But to be honest, didn’t drive well on that one, I just didn’t get into the rhythm. Just been avoiding all the big rocks so hemorrhaging a little bit of time there but I’d rather be safe than sorry this early on in the rally.”
Osian Pryce
Despite that lack of rhythm, Price, and Co-Driver Rhodri Evans were still a slender 0.2 seconds quicker than Ingram & Alex Kihurani on the stage and had slotted themselves in right at the top of the leaderboard on the opening night of the Rally. Four seconds behind the leaders, Ingram although said that “it felt nice”, also reported that he felt that he was “a bit conservative, especially on the braking just with it being quite loose”.
Stage one pace setters Creighton and Co-Driver Liam Regan were, unfortunately, the first crew to be struck down with a puncture. The pair would lose a chunk of time and tumble down the leaderboard to fifth promoting Keith Cronin into the final podium spot at the overnight halt.
Photo: William Creighton & Liam Regan | Source: British Rally Championship
“Probably halfway to two-thirds of the way in, everything was pretty perfect in the car and then that happens, but what can you do?”, “We’ve just gotta be flat out tomorrow”
William Creighton
Meanwhile in the cockpit of Cronin’s Ford Fiesta Rally2 car, the four times British Rally Champ was not feeling these Scottish gravel stages and was a further 6.7 seconds off the pace of Ingram.
Photo: Keith Cronin & Mikie Galvin | Source: Keith Cronin Rally
“I didn’t drive well at all, to be honest, I just didn’t feel comfortable, I tried to push on a bit but the car was getting away from me, I dunno if it was just because of the lose or what? I just didn’t find a rhythm this evening but tomorrow is another day.”
Keith Cronin
Holding fourth at the end of the opening leg of two stages was James Williams in the Orange Amplifiers Hyundai i20 Rally2 machine. Williams with Ross Whittock beside him was almost having to pick his way through the stages avoiding all of the rocks. “I’ve never seen so many big stones on a stage, it’s almost throwing us into a spin a lot and we are dropping time”, Williams reported.
Photo: James Williams & Ross Whittock | Source: James Williams Rallying
Just outside of the top five and some 37-odd seconds off the pace was BRC returnee, Jonny Greer. Having last competed in the British Rally Championship back in 2019; Greer has spent most of his time since, over in Ireland campaigning the Citroen C3 Rally2 car in the Irish Tarmac series. Commenting on how mental he thought the pace in the British Championship was, just over the first two stages, he was, however, enjoying it already.
Elsewhere, Scottish youngster Max McRae, whose last gravel outing was the Cambrian Rally last year where he competed in an R5 spec Skoda Fabia, was trying to learn the Rally2 Spec M-Sport Ford Fiesta.
“Everything so new for me with the four-wheel drive on gravel. We had a bit of an overshoot on the last stage on a braking point, we’re just enjoying it.”
Max McRae
For now, Max was holding P7 and was just 1.6 seconds in front of the second Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 in the hands of Welshman Meiron Evans, whose evening didn’t exactly go swimmingly. Just like Creighton, he also picked up a puncture which dented his overall time.
“Every time there’s a small loop the night before something seems to go wrong for me”
Meiron Evans
Photos: Meiron Evans & Jonathan Jackson | Garry Pearson & Dan Barritt | Source: British Rally Championship
In P9 Garry Pearson also did not have the best of starts to his Grampian, the Scotsman spun his M-Sport Ford Fiesta Rally2 car in SS2 following a slight loss of concentration which resulted in a time loss of around 20-25 seconds for him and Co-Driver Dan Barritt.
Yet again the troubles continued for Irishman Kyle White, whose Hyundai i20 R5 car was suffering from some Anti Lag gremlins.
White explains “Every time I turn the lag on it’s really loud so I drove the first stage without the lag but I used it on the second one”, and to add to his woes “I got caught out on a quick corner at the end and we were just spinning, we are lucky that we are here” at least white could head back to service to address the anti-lag, rounding out the top 10 and look to fight another day in the morning.
END OF LEG 1
| POS | LEADERBOARD | TIME |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | #3 O.PRYCE / R.EVANS | 11:23.7 |
| 2 | #1 C.INGRAM / A.KIHURANI | +4.0 |
| 3 | #4 K.CRONIN / M.GALVIN | +6.7 |
| 4 | #5 J.WILLIAMS / R.WHITTOCK | +7.9 |
| 5 | #2 W.CREIGHTON / L.REGAN | +7.5 |
LEG 2
The next morning the crews headed North for a loop of two single-use stages to the north of the hamlet of Tullynessle, with SS4 Whitehaugh having seen little to no use previously. The day would begin with the shortest test of the event at just 3.8 miles, Clatterin Kist. Overnight Rally leader, Osian Pryce thought that it was a good one to wake them up, sentiments somewhat echoed by Ingram who thought that it was “a great little stage”.
As he had done on the opening stage the night before, William Creighton would be the man who set the early pace at the beginning of the day. With some lighting fast pace, the Irishman took 1.2 out of Ingram to win the stage, which was even more impressive given its short length
“A good wake-up call this morning, it’s super fast to begin with”, “We had a pretty clean stage trying not to overdrive and just get in the flow”
William Creighton
Photo: William Creighton & Liam Regan | Source: British Rally Championship
Creighton would follow that in the very next test, SS4 Whitehaugh, this time, taking a further 3.4 out of Ingram and more out of the rally leader Pryce. Meanwhile, his fellow countryman, Keith Cronin was seemingly off the pace again in the morning, not even managing top 5 times on the first two tests of the day. This had allowed for Creighton, who was on a massive charge, to overtake him for the final podium place heading back to the first service halt of the day.
“Just no confidence, I did a non-championship round for a bit of practice and I felt more into it but I’m really struggling today”
Keith Cronin
James Williams was consistent over the first two morning stages, the Hyundai i20 Rally2 pilot had recorded the fourth fastest stage time on both of the tests and was holding P5 and just 1.1 seconds adrift of Cronin ahead.
Photo: James Williams & Ross Whittock | Source: British Rally Championship
“I think it’s just learning the car and getting more confidence with it. As we are going we are getting more stronger and closer to the front pace”, “We are only a couple of seconds off Osian and Chris, so I’m happy with that”
James Williams
SERVICE / QUOTES
“It’s a case of you can only do what you can, the first stage the grip was quite good, the second stage it was quite low, I was just a little careful and messed up a few bits but didn’t do anything mad”
“Will is going very strong behind, as expected but we are doing everything we can with what we’ve got” “I’m very comfortable and there’s a lot more to come from me, we’ve changed the car and I’m still not driving it how it’s capable of being driven.”, “I’m happy with what we are doing but there is more to come”
Osian Pryce – P1
“The rhythm’s not quite there but hopefully it’s going come now, I’m still learning the car a little bit really, we’ve made some massive changes since the Nicky Grist and it feels like a different car but I’m really pleased with it so far”
Chris Ingram – P2
“We are just getting into a good rhythm, I’m happy with the notes and whenever you get into a flow it just seems to work” “We had a nice morning but the gap is quite big, so we are just doing our own thing”
Williams Creighton – P3
“There’s no substitute for seat time. The way that Will has evolved throughout the season is quite remarkable and the pace he’s doing this morning, I have to say he’s even surprised me”
Malcolm Wilson
Photo: Chris Ingram & Alex Kihurani | Source: British Rally Championship
Back out after the first of two service visits of the day, drama would ensue for a number of the BRC1 crews. But not for, Chris Ingram who secured both his and the Toyota GR Yaris’s maiden BRC stage win. Winning the Durris Stage by 2.2 seconds over Cronin, Ingram would also move into the lead of the rally on this “Drama-Filled” test. First up to feel the pain was Welshmen Osian Pryce & Rhodri Evans; the pair had a spin that lost them the lead of the rally and dropped them down to fourth, Osian tries to explain:
“I don’t really know, all I know is we were facing the wrong way. It was a bit of a strange one really, the backend just hopped out of the cut and just spun us around. We were quite lucky to stay on the road but we were facing completely diagonally the wrong way so it took us about 6 or 7 attempts to turn around. Then we lost pressure in the clutch, so I had to stop and pump the peddle. It was about 27 seconds that we dropped, we’ll battle on”
And Pryce wasn’t the only one, to add insult to his puncture the previous day, Creighton also lost another 20 seconds here following a 5th gear spin which knocked him back down to fifth. Benefitting from all this was Keith Cronin & Mikie Galvin who were bumped up to second, 24 seconds behind the new rally leaders Ingram & Kihurani. This also allowed James Williams & Ross Whittock to move into a podium place, be that only temporarily.
Photo: Osian Pryce & Rhodri Evans | Source: British Rally Championship
Fear not and nil desperandum, all was not totally lost for Pryce, just 0.5 seconds was the gap between him and regaining a podium place. In the very next stage (SS6 Drumtochty), the Welshman returned to the top of the timing sheets taking his second stage win of the event and with it, moving back up the leaderboard. Slotting himself into second he was, however, now starring at a time deficit of more than 18 seconds to rally leader Ingram with the final loop of three stages remaining.
The new rally leader arrived at the final service stop of the rally having had a bit moment himself in SS6 “We just need to keep our head now”, “We just need to focus now on these next three” Ingram tells himself.
Holding P3, six seconds behind Pryce, Williams thought that Drumtochty was “relentless”, he goes on to add “There’s lots of tightening corners and the car was just sideways everywhere, probably need to work a little bit on the set-up” but he felt that everything was going OK.
Fourth-place man Cronin also picked up a slow puncture in the middle loop but was just trying to drive cleaner. Meanwhile, his fellow countryman, Creighton’s bad luck just continued, arriving at the stop line of SS6 with yet another shredded tyre on his Ford Fiesta Rally2 car.
“Maybe three & half miles to go, I avoided with the front but just clipped a rock with the rear”
Outside of the top five, Jonny Greer & Niall Burns were the best of the rest, some 23 seconds back from Creighton. Despite having a good loop and enjoying the Scottish stages, the Citroen C3 Pilot just couldn’t match the pace of these top BRC crews “I’m just losing so much on the high speeds as I just don’t have the bravery like these boys” “But all good and happy enough”.
The final loop of the rally would feature a further three stages, two of which being repeats of the Friday night stages, finishing off with a single pass of Scare Hill, which included the second half of the Drumtochty test.
Creighton repeated his stage win in the Hurlie Bog stage (SS7). The penultimate stage of the rally (Finglennie 2) unfortunately claimed the Hyundai N i20 Rally2 car of James Williams & Russ Whittock who hit a rock and snapped a suspension arm, retiring them from that battle with Cronin for the final podium spot. Meiron Evans also had a bit of a moment in front of the spectators, sliding off the road and Garry Pearson in his own words “out of nowhere” got a puncture.
Pryce picked up his third stage win whilst chasing down Ingram, who by now was just managing his lead of the rally heading into the final stage of the event.
Photo: Osian Pryce & Rhodri Evans | Source: British Rally Championship
Chris Ingram and Alex Kihurani would enter the final 7 miles through Drumtochty Forest with a buffer of 13.5 seconds to defend against Osian Pryce & Rhodri Evans. Despite Pryce giving it one last blast on the throttle to take his fourth stage win here by 1.7 seconds to Creighton, it was all in vain.
Photo: Chris Ingram & Alex Kihurani | Source: British Rally Championship
Ingram and Kihurani cruised to the finish line in the Melvyn Evans Motorsport Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 with a final margin of 9 seconds to not only secure their second victory of the season but also to claim the car’s maiden British Rally Championship win.
Photo: Chris Ingram & Alex Kihurani | Source British Rally Championship
“It’s been one of the most difficult rallies that I’ve done in the country!, I’m not that happy with my gravel pace and I was a little confused on the set-up today but we can improve a lot”
“Fare play to Osian and William, I was a bit lucky here but we were unlucky on the Jim Clark and that’s rallying”
“I feel like I’ve nailed my tarmac technique but I need a bit of support on gravel with the Toyota, so maybe we can get an engineer at the next rally because I need to learn a bit more and my technique is not quite right on gravel”
“Some of the guys have really upped their pace this weekend so it’s gonna be a hell of a fight”
Chris Ingram
Second place man, Osian Pryce alongside Co-Driver Rhodri Evans was leaving Scotland pleased, yet perhaps wondering what if?
“It’s one of those, Chris drove really well and probably did a little less mistakes than we did, it’s just unfortunate that one mysterious spin which doesn’t happen very often for me, so yeah it’s one of those things. I’ll be kicking myself about it but I don’t really know what I could have done differently as I was on a charge”
“We’ve made a good improvement with the car this weekend and it’s probably the first time I’ve enjoyed driving the car on Gravel for a while. It’s good, I’ve really enjoyed it, OK second is better than being parked at the side of the road like last time. We are heading in the right direction and two crucial rounds now in Ceredigion.”
Osian Pryce
Rounding out the podium in third was Irishman Keith Cronin alongside Mikie Galvin. The 2022 Grampian winners had really struggled to get along with the Scottish Stage this time around, but in the end, they would walk away with a good result. Proving that steady progress and remaining in the race was vital when fighting for a Championship title, even if the magic wasn’t happening in the cockpit on the day.
Photo: Keith Cronin & Mikie Galvin | Source: British Rally Championship
“At the start of the rally and after the first few stages I would have definitely taken a podium because I didn’t get off to the best start pace-wise. Our pace was improving all weekend which I’m happy with, we’ve still a little bit to go but we closed right in on the fast guys’, pace-wise in the end which is good”
“From a Championship point of view, the way things are going this year, everyone is taking points off everyone, so every podium is good for the Championship”
Keith Cronin
Another man to leave Scotland perhaps also wondering “what if”, was William Creighton. Alongside Co-Driver Liam Regan, the young Irishman had shown some insane lighting speed out on these Scottish stages in his M-Sport Ford Fiesta Rally2. Taking the most stage wins (four out of nine), his performance was impressive, yet sadly his result of P4 didn’t really reflect what he actually deserved. Suffering from two punctures which would ultimately take him out of that fight for the rally win; Creighton who really was the fastest man at the rally would still leave the Grampian with his positive hat on.
“It is what it is but I think the positive is our speed. Up until now, we haven’t really properly been able to challenge for consistent stage wins from the start of a rally, but today we were on the money from then on and the feeling was good in the car”, “If you take the punctures away, it’s been a good day rallying”
William Creighton
Rounding out the top five were Jonny Greer & Niall Burns in the Citroen C3 Rally2; returning to the BRC for the first time since 2019 had not only been an enjoyable outing but was actually a bit of an eye-opener for the Irishman.
“I really enjoyed the weekend and It was a bit of an eye-opener with the pace that’s in the British Championship. It’s great to be doing the same rally as these drivers and seeing where they’re going and the lines they are taking” “Back when I used to the BRC I’d always used to finish fifth, then I go away for a few years and come back and finish fifth!, so I’m consistent”
Jonny Greer
Photo: BRC1 Podium | Source: British Rally Championship
FINAL RESULTS
| POS | LEADERBOARD | TIME |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | #1 C.INGRAM / A.KIHURANIS | 51:43.6 |
| 2 | #3 O.PRYCE / R.EVAN | +9.0 |
| 3 | #4 K.CRONIN / M.GALVIN | +19.7 |
| 4 | #2 W.CREIGHTON / L.REGAN | +19.3 |
| 5 | #9 J.GREER / N.BURNS | +55.5 |
JUNIOR
Five crews would line up for the Grampian in Scotland for Round 4 of the Motorsport UK, Probite Junior British Rally Championship. Arriving in Stonehaven leading the Junior driver’s standings was Scotland’s very own, Robert Proudlock, despite only managing a fifth-place finish last time out on the Asphalt of the Jim Clark Rally. Where Irish lad Kyle McBride came away with his first victory of the season.
At the previous round, newcomer to the series Ryan MacHugh threw his hat into the ring rather firmly with an impressive debut performance on his first British Championship outing. The young Irishman has been showing amazing pace back home in Ireland and his entrance into the JBRC series on the Jim Clark gave the existing protagonist something to really take a mental note of.
LEG 1
And it would be MacHugh who would be the one to set the benchmark on the opening test (Hurlie Bog) of this Scottish gravel rally adventure. With the experienced Arthur Kierans beside him in the Ford Fiesta Rally4 calling the notes, the pair would stop the clocks 1.6 seconds quicker than McBride and Darragh Mullens in their Peugeot 208 Rally4.
Robert Proudlock and Stephen Brown would be the third quickest over the first 6.9-mile test in the Fetteresso Forest, the pair a further 3.5 seconds down on McBride.
Photo: Ryan MacHugh & Arthur Kierans | Source: British Rally Championship
MacHugh would step things up yet again in the second stage through Drumtochty Forest with an even more impressive display of speed; boosting his early lead by a whopping 7.6 seconds in the shorter 5.3-mile blast through the Finglennie stage. MacHugh and Kierans would end the opening leg of the rally with the first two stage wins under their belts and also an overnight lead of 9.8 seconds over McBride and Mullens heading into the main meat of the bones the next day.
“They are good stages in there but there are a lot of big stones in the road, and you can’t avoid them all”, “We had a good run”
Ryan MacHugh
McBride would admit to struggling a bit on the loose stuff in these Scottish gravel tests, but It was still early days and there was a further seven stages laying in wait ahead of them for the second day.
Photo: Kyle McBride & Darragh Mullen | Source: British Rally Championship
“It’s gonna be tricky, it’s good to be back on the gravel. Two stages there and I’m kind of struggling for grip”, “We went on the medium tyre and I feel like I’m losing them there a bit but overall we are happy to get through day one nice and clean”
Kyle McBride
Rounding out the top three of the opening leg was Round 1 winner, Keelan Grogan, a further eleven and a bit seconds behind McBride. Outside of the battle for the lead, Championship leader Robert Proudlock’s event had gotten off to the worst possible start.
“About halfway through the first stage, we lost fourth gear so from then on it was just trying to deal with that and get the car back to service, not a good start to the rally!”
Robert Proudlock
| POS | END OF LEG 1 | TIME |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | #36 R.MACHUGH / A.KIERANS | 12:57.8 |
| 2 | #31 K.MCBRIDE / D.MULLEN | +9.8 |
| 3 | #35 K.GROGAN / A.SHERLOCK | +11.2 |
LEG 2
The action would resume the next morning for a loop of two single-use stages to the North, beginning with the shortest test of the event at just 3.8 miles, Clatterin Kist.
Now with a fourth gear working in his gearbox, Robert Proudlock would get back in the mix with his first stage win here, beating McBride by 1.4 seconds and climbing the leaderboard from stone called last and into the final podium place. Grogan would also pop up for his first stage win on SS4 before the crews headed into the first service halt of the day, with MacHugh and Kierans leading the way by 6.2 seconds over McBride and Mullen.
The drama would ensue on the first stage back out after service (SS5 Durris), first on the road Ryan MacHugh hit a bridge and shredded a tyre, and would go over the permitted limit, thus losing the lead of the rally. McBride rolled out of the rally with a spectacular off which resulted in a rather surprised Proudlock & Brown now leading the rally. And as for Welshman Ioan Lloyd who followed them through the stage, well he also had an eventful run at it.
👀👀#BRC #BRCRally pic.twitter.com/LYOT3MDTeO
— British Rally Championship (@BRCrally) August 20, 2024
“About two miles in the boost pipe came off, we knew what it was straight away so pulled over and sorted that and got going again but we dropped a couple of minutes. Two miles further up the road Kyle was off the road and Ryan was pulled in, so it’s important to keep going”, “It’s gutting because they were both on some pace, it’s a shame because they deserved to have a result with their pace, but we’ll gather up the pieces now”
Ioan Lloyd
Now leading the rally, Robert Proudlock was also now in his happy place, recording another stage win in Drumtochty he was sitting comfortably with a margin of over 30 seconds to protect heading into the final loop of three stages.
Photo: Robert Proudlock & Steven Brown | Source: British Rally Championship
“I’m absolutely loving this today, it’s fantastic, I’ve done this rally twice in the past two years, it’s phenomenal”
Robert Proudlock
Entering into the final home straight, Proudlock would add his fourth stage win to his tally in the second pass of Hurlie Bog and from then on, should have been able to relax a little as he aimed his nose for the finish line. However, this is rallying, and as we all know, anything can happen, his Peugeot 208 Rally car then began to suffer from a boost issue, could he hold onto the win? could he even make it to the finish?
Welshman Loan Lloyd would pick the final two stage wins, but despite this, the gap to P2 was far too big to even contemplate moving up a place. the Welshman with Sion Williams would, however, be relieved to scope up the final spot on the podium behind runner-up Keelan Grogan.
Grogan alongside Co-Driver Ayrton Sherlock admitted to never really getting into the rally “but the result kind of played into our hands and we were there to pick it up so we are happy” he commented.
Photo: Robert Proudlock & Steven Brown | Source: British Rally Championship
Robert Proudlock, alongside Steven Brown, would thankfully make it to the finish line and take to the top step of the podium for the second time this season. Having overcome mechanical gremlins with the gearbox in his Peugeot 208 Rally4 on the opening stage of the event, his persistence had paid off. With a final winning margin of over a minute, the Scotsman was floating on cloud nine having won this challenging gravel event.
“Honestly, that’s a dream come true, after yesterday I am absolutely delighted and buzzing with that. We had lost boost pressure in the last few stages and I was biting my fingers nails; I wasn’t sure if it was even going to be enough to beat Keegan, but by the time, it looks like he was playing it safe as well”
Robert Proudlock
Photo: Junior British Rally Championship Podium | Source: British Rally Championship
| POS | JBRC FINAL LEADERBOARD | TIME |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | #30 R.PROUDLOCK / S.BROWN | 59:20.0 |
| 2 | #35 K.GROGAN / A.SHERLOCK | +1:01.3 |
| 3 | #32 I.LLOYD / S.WILLIAMS | +3:14.7 |
NATIONAL
The National section of the British Rally Championship was a two-horse race, BRC regular William Mains would be out in a Vauxhall Corsa and would be pitching himself up against a legend of our sport.
None other than Jimmy McRae; Jimmy’s first rally was back in 1975 and in 1988, he won the Scottish at the wheel of a Ford Sierra Cosworth in what was his last British Rally Championship event win. Whizz forward to the present day and he was treating himself to an outing in a hired Ford MK1 Escort to celebrate his 50th year involved in rallying.
Photo: Jimmy McRae & Gail Whyte | Source: British Rally Championship
McRae had Gail Whyte sitting beside him calling the notes and by the end of the first leg of two stages, the pair were leading William Mains and Whittle by 34 seconds.
“A bit rusty in there but fine, I’m still enjoying it”
Jimmy McRae
Photos: Jimmy McRae & Gail Whyte | Source: British Rally Championship
As the rally progressed throughout the second day, McRae was getting his eye in and peddling the Escort through the Scottish forest like it was the good old days.
“It’s a nice wee car, I don’t want to damage it”, “It’s been a slow learning curve from last night”, “I’m looking for a contract next year”
Jimmy McRae
With a full house of stage wins, McRae would find himself spraying the Champagne at the finish, having completed this tough, challenging gravel rally with a final margin of over two minutes and twenty-six seconds over Mains and Whittle in the Corsa.
Photo: Jimmy McRae | Source: British Rally Championship
“It’s just unbelievable really, to think that 50 years on to come and do it, I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was great fun, I won the class and I said when I came here that I wanted to better my seeding and that is what I had planned, so to this it has been fantastic”, “Last night was a bit of a baptism but today I was really getting into it. There’s still life in the old dog yet”
Jimmy McRae
| POS | FINAL NATIONAL RESULTS | TIME |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | #50 J.MCRAE / G.WHYTE | 1:06:18.8 |
| 2 | #65 W.MAINS / T.WHITTLE | +2:26.7 |
OPEN
In the Open event, Scotsman Hugh Brunton would record his second win of the season in his Skoda Fabia Rally2 EVO. With Co-Driver Terry Mallin sitting beside him calling the notes for the first time, the pair would lead the Open field of three from the very first stage through to the last.
Photo: Hugh Brunton & Terry Mallin | Source: British Rally Championship
With a full house of Open-stage wins, the final margin for victory was a whopping five minutes and twenty-seven seconds, but it was fairly obvious that his main focus on the rally was in the Scottish Championship which had a bigger field of competition.
“It’s been really good, a great rally, really well run, the stages have been fantastic”
Hugh Brunton
Photo: Hugh Brunton & Terry Mallin | Source: British Rally Championship
Perhaps behind Brunton, there was a slightly more interesting battle for the bridesmaid honors at first between the likes of John Morrison and John Rintoul in a pair of Ford Fiesta R5 machines.
At the end of the opening leg of two stages on Friday, Morrison and Co-Driver Sinclair Young had the edge on Rintoul and Ross Hynd, completing the first two stages with a gap of 19.5 seconds.
However, Morrison was able to build on this throughout the second day of the event to secure the second spot on the podium with a margin over Rintoul of over 48 seconds.
| POS | FINAL OPEN RESULTS | TIME |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | #22 H.BRUNTON / T.MALLIN | 55:24.9 |
| 2 | #41 J.MORRISON / S.YOUNG | +5:27.1 |
| 3 | #40 J.RINTOUL / R.HYND | +48.3 |
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
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| POS | BRC1 DRIVERS | POINTS |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | WILLIAM CREIGHTON | 70 |
| 2 | CHRIS INGRAM | 69 (J) |
| 3 | KEITH CRONIN | 52 |
| 4 | OSIAN PRYCE | 47 |
| 5 | GARRY PEARSON | 38 (J) |
| POS | JBRC DRIVERS | POINTS |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | ROBERT PROUDLOCK | 82 |
| 2 | KYLE MCBRIDE | 51 (J) |
| 3 | KALUM GRAFFIN | 48 (J) |
| 4 | KEELAN GROGON | 35 |
| 5 | CASEY JAY COLMAN | 31 (J) |
| POS | OPEN DRIVERS | POINTS |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | JOHN RINTOUL | 57 (J) |
| 2 | HUGH BRUNTON | 53 (J) |
| 3 | JOHN MORRISON | 50 (J) |
| POS | NATIONAL DRIVERS | POINTS |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | WILLIAM MAINS | 57 (J) |
| 2 | DARREN ATKINSON | 52 |
| 3 | MATTHEW DANCE | 35 |
NEXT TIME
The Motorsport UK, Probite British Rally Championship heads to Aberystwyth, Wales for a doubleheader tarmac international special, Rali Ceredigion (30th Aug – 1st Sept). Where the British Rally Championship crews will pitch themselves against the FIA European Rally Championship field in what promises to be an epic event, building on the huge success of the previous years.
