Scottish Rally – Sunday 30th June 2007
Location: Dumfries
Lanarkshire teenager, Alick Kerr (18) from Bothwell consolidated his championship
lead with a class win on the Scottish Rally held in the forests around its Dumfries
base. A field of 114 rally cars started what was the 75th anniversary of this
popular event.
Drizzle on the way to the first stage soon turned to heavy rain making conditions
very hazardous. “We kept it neat and tidy through the first stage due to
the slippy conditions and we were delighted to come out the other end with a
15 second lead over two times Scottish Rally Champion, Andrew Wood in his identical
specification car,” commented Kerr.
During
the long 15 mile, 2nd stage, Andrew Wood picked up a puncture and dropped over
3 minutes. This also left Kerr, in his Leaker Direct and Bags Online backed
Peugeot 205, with a 25 second lead over Inverness based Ian Munro going into
the first scheduled service stop. Kerr further increased his lead through the
next two stages returning to the final service halt with a lead of 31 seconds
over 2nd placed Munro.
“We hit quite a few very big rocks through the 2 stages before service
and picked up a vibration from our differential which sits just above the sump
guard,” explained Kerr, “With two stages to go, we were worried that
we might not make it to the finish in Dumfries.”
The crew took a steady run through the short Heathhall Spectator Special stage
before heading out to the final 14 mile run through the Forest of Ae where a
front wheel puncture about 3 miles from the end lost them about 60 seconds.
“We decided to run on the puncture as we would have lost more time by changing
it on stage,” said Kerr, “It was a big risk since we could have done
a lot of damage but we couldn’t afford to drop too much time as we were
going for the win.”
On the run back to the finish in Dumfries, the team had calculated that Ian
Munro should have leapfrogged them into the lead due to the time lost with the
puncture. They had an agonising wait before confirmation came through that Munro
also had a problem and had stopped on the final stage with an electrical problem.
Following a six week break, the next outing for the team will be the Speyside
Stages Rally being held on 11th August in the forests around Elgin.
Further information on the team can be found at www.alickkerr.com.
Further information on the team: www.alickkerr.com
Photograph Copyright first Colin Smith: www.ecossepix.co.uk
