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6th July 2008

What a result for Caithness Motorsport with Allan Mackay scoring a first in Class 5 and a second overall in his Evo while his son Gordon had a second in class 3 and a tenth overall in a near standard Peugeot 106, Mark Alexander in his Evo achieving 16th overall and 7th in class, all on the third round of the Scottish Tarmac Championship which was held down at Crail, Astruther in Fife on the 14th & 15th of June.

Five Caithness crews had entered and traveled down to compete in the event which consisted of 96 competitive miles run over 2 days.

The weather on the Saturday started off dry with a downpour midday which cleared up and was dry for the rest of the weekend . Allan MacKay had an epic battle throughout the weekend with Bruce Edwards, Brett Milton and Graham Clark all trading seconds but with the drying conditions it was Bruce Edwards that took top slot and Allan managing to keep the other's at bay with an outstanding drive that netted him and navigator Mo Downey, their best ever result in the MacKay Motorsport Evo 6, "with more to come" was the quote from the jubilant driver.

The star of the event has to go to Gordon MacKay who showed what a talented driver he is, driving a Mackay Motorsport prepared car that had a standard engine and gearbox he achieved the near impossible top ten overall result and a second in class in his Peugeot 106, leaving a lot more powerful cars in his wake. To say he drove the doors of the car would be an understatement, although he did damage a few panels, he and his navigator Keir Beaton drove a brilliant rally, even in the treacherous wet conditions he showed exceptional car control, with less power than his rivals he was always having to drive the wee 106 so much harder, and the results are there for everyone to see.

The Saturday did not start off well for Mark Alexander and Andrew Falconer in their Alexander Trailers Evo 4, the clutch just did not fell right to Mark and he was very cautious for the first stages, this was properly due to this being a new car for him and lack of testing. Sunday saw the pair move up the field, putting in some very competitive times, a whining diff, late on in the day was a real concern with the finish insight.

Achieving a very creditable 16th overall and 7th in class especially as this was Mark's first rally in this car. Once again Euan Mackay and his Peugeot 106 were having no luck, first it was driveshaft problems that forced them out of Saturdays event, the support team managing to fix that overnight , they re-entered on the Sunday for the Trophy rally only for the gearbox to give up on the very last stage, hopefully his luck will change.

The MSIS Kadett of Billy and Kevin Hamilton was literally flying on stage 4 when the clipped a tyre in a chicane which sent the car into a spectacular roll, landing first on its roof and finally stopping on its wheels, fortunately neither of the crew were hurt but not so for the car, the only panel left was the boot lid. Billy was quoted as saying "after having the car for 11 years its like loosing a friend, but that’s rallying". The pair hope to find another and be back out next year. Results can be found at www.strc.co.uk the next rally in the calendar is back at Ingliston for round 4 on the 27th July.

Bill Hamilton

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