WINNING WEEKEND FOR OCEANSCAN RALLY TEAM (03/06/2008)
The Oceanscan Limited supported Grampian Rally Team had a particularly busy weekend after deciding to enter their MK2 Escort rally car in both the National and Scottish Championship events. As well as being a stern test for the rally car due to the length of these events it would also be a test for the team's Alford based driver Keith Robathan as he would be assisted on each event by a different co-driver - Aberdeen based Martin Forrest on the National event and London based Duncan Brown on the Reivers Rally.
Before the start of any rally all cars are inspected by the rally organisers to make sure that the mandatory safety equipment is fitted. This was completed on Friday evening and the team were then able to relax knowing that the weather forecast for the weekend was predicting dry conditions which would be ideal for the MK2 Escort with its 2 wheel drive. This would give them a chance to compete against the more modern and powerful turbo engined 4 wheel drive cars.
It therefore came as a bit of a surprise on Saturday morning when it started to rain as the team left Kelso for the start of the National Rally near Duns. Luckily this was a localised shower and as the team approached Duns the skies cleared and the roads started to dry.
In the weeks before the MK2 Escort had been modified by fitted a new 6 speed sequential gearbox. This gearbox is designed to allow quicker gear changes but when the rally started the new gear change took a while to adapt to. Despite learning the new gear change Keith and Martin had an excellent event finishing 1st in their class and 8th overall. Keith commented - "it's OK changing gear on road sections at normal road speed but changing gear on the stages when everything is happening so much quicker is a bit different. We have had an excellent event today in the 27 year old Escort and beaten many more modern cars. The choice of tyre compound was critical today and I think we would have been quicker if I had chosen a softer front tyre but we have to be very happy with 1st class and 8th overall."
After a quick check over on Saturday evening the car was then ready to tackle Sunday's Scottish Rally Championship Reivers Rally with co-driver Duncan Brown. This event had a maximum entry of over 110 cars so again was going to be a real test of car and crew over the 65 flat out stage miles.
Things started very well for Keith and Duncan, setting the 6th fastest time on the first stage. During the morning they managed to keep this pace going and incredibly set the 2nd fastest time overall on the 12.8 mile long Leitholm 1 stage. After stage 3 the crew were battling with rally legend Steve Bannister for the 2nd overall position but on stage 4 the car picked up a rear puncture which meant they dropped time to Steve. At the end of the event, despite the rear puncture, the crew finished an amazing 3rd overall and 1st 2ltr engine car.
During the prize giving ceremony in Kelso town centre, Keith commented "it was disappointing to get the rear puncture when we were battling for 2nd overall. We had just taken 4 seconds off Steve on the previous stage so it was building up to be a great battle to the finish but it's absolutely fantastic for an older car to finish 3rd overall and 1st 2ltr car. Except for the rear puncture the car ran faultlessly today and 3rd overall is a great reward for the whole team including friends Andy, Calum, Davie and Callum who have helped us all weekend." At the finish Duncan commented "we maybe needed a 7th gear - I think we could have pulled a few more MPH in some places but probably glad we did only have 6 gears as it's the G-forces that are hurting me now, never had a neck as sore as this before without having an accident!"
The Grampian Rally Teams next event will be the Colin McRae Forest Stages Rally based in Perth on September 27th 2008.
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