5th & 6th for Caithness Rally Drivers

6th July 2011

Two Caithness crews travelled down to compete in the GMSC Summer Stages held at Crail in Fife on the 3rd July. The event attracted 54 entries from Scotland, England, and Ireland and with the weather being one of the hottest days this was going to be a very fast, exciting event.

Seeded 43rd James Brims and Sandy Coghill were in the ex Garry Dickson Peugeot 306 and 14th for Billy and Sara Hamilton in their 1979 Opel Kadett. This was Jim and Sandy's first ever tarmac event having competed in forest events before this, but it did not take the duo long before they got the 306 up to speed, moving up the field from 43rd to finishing the rally in a very credible 19th overall and 6th in Class 4 with a time of 55.16mins, Billy and Sara Hamilton were competing in class 4 in their self built Opel Kadett. This was Sara's 2nd event ever, having taken over the navigator's seat from her brother Kevin who now resides in New Zealand.

Billy has competed here 5 times previously but has never finished the rally having rolled a very similar car 3 years ago at this very event. This also was only the 2nd time Billy has driven the new car in anger, having built it over the previous 2 years. They managed to finish 16th overall and 5th in class 4 with a time of 53.33mins. Overall winners of the event were Peter Taylor and Jack Morton in a Renault Clio R3 with a time of 49.36mins and Alan Gardiner and Robin Nicolson in a Ford Escort MK1 with a time of 49.46mins.

The next event for James Brims is the Speyside Rally on the 6th August, Sandy Coghill and Billy Hamilton hope to compete in the Caithness Car Club Sprint at Golspie on the 10th/11th September. Sandy holds the record for Class 2A road car and will be driving his Rover 200 whilst Billy will be trying a road going Suzuki Swift. The next Tarmac Rally that Billy and Sara will be competing will be the Kingdom Stages in November back at Crail.