The Station Garage Mitsubishi Granite City Rally
2010
The third round of the Scottish Rally Championship 2010 was won by David Bogie, fastest on 4 of the six stages. Jock Armstrong was 17 seconds down in second place, with Mike Faulkner another 17 seconds back in third.
There were 111 starters, 85 finished.
26 Gordon Murray / Danny Small / Subaru Imprezza
The day before the Rally we thought we would have to pull our entry as the gearbox parts we needed will not be delivered from Japan until mid May, However Scott and Jock from G & B Mechanical Services in Perth came to the rescue they loaned and fitted the spares which they borrowed from one of there customers cars spares package which the customer Billy Cowie was happy to loan us, So a very big thank you to Scott Jock and Billy Cowie otherwise we could not have entered the Rally.
At long last we have broken our duck of non finishing, We finished the Rally in 18th place overall, not the best result we have had but very happy just to finish , The stages were a very good mix of tight and technical to fast flowing and flat out in top gear, it was a nice change from Snow , Ice, and deep mud, A very enjoyable days Rallying for us.
Regards
Gordon
28 John Rintoul / Jim Rintoul / Mitsubishi Evo 9
FCE''s Granite was hard.....as hard as being asked to comment on the size o'' yer wifes bum in her new frock - do you tell the truth, or tell her what she wants to hear.
It''s the same wi us on loose surface rallies.
Having been brought up on Tarmac events and achieving relative success, its hard to come to terms with two non finishes and apparent non improvement in performance.
Do we listen to our peers who tell us ''ye''re dain fine'' whilst they''re thinking ''what a pair o fanny''s''......hmmmm
So we made some changes this time out. Raised the car, ''makes it easier out of the ditches'', tried different tyres, to see if there was any grip out there, and softened suspension settings, cos John had a sair back all week.
Stage 1 was a twisty stoory wee buffer, shocking both driver and navigator into rally mode with rough ruts and muckle chuckies that made it more like Rally Greece. Being gentlemen, we''re used to a dignified start and managed 38th overall....could do better.
Stage 2 was 7 miles ish, and we tried again, managing a slight improvement, but still 15 seconds or so off the pace around us.
Stage 3 was a bit less twisty, so we tried harder still and managed a stage time within 5 seconds or so from the guy''s we had set our sights on.
The pace felt safe and yet aggressive enough, but we''d only covered about 17 competitive miles and nearly 90 road miles.
Stage 4 after the only service was delayed for about an hour and a half due to spectator issues. We were wound down completely and it was like a fresh event, but our times were still well short of the leaders and not much closer to the ''pack''.
Stage 5 was dusty and rough but still fast, maybe too fast, as ma driver had a couple of coorse corners and hairpins where we were almost parked in the gravel which lost us a bit of time - so we went back to smoother, cleaner, yet try faster pace for the 10 mile final stage.
Stage 6 was to claim a couple of top cars. We saw Shaun Sinclair upside down about a mile from the start and Paul Cooke stopped sideways and blocking the road. But it was a more enjoyable distance, and an overall enjoyable day, but more important for us - A FINISH !!!!
28th overall with only 3 retirals in the top 30. Wiznae bad.
We''ve got a trick up our sleeve for the Jim Clark Rievers - tell ya later.!
Jim Rintoul
General Manager
FCE Group of Companies
131 Lachlan%
