Saturday morning involved many phone calls being made as friends and members of HBCC met up for the journey up the M90. We travelled in convoy along the rural A roads of Perthshire expecting to come up against masses of rally traffic with people getting to the stages in the compact route. The run was surprisingly clear though and we arrived at stage start, meeting George, Spike and Ryan who had already been to the racecourse to see the cars away.

Duties were quickly dispatched; Spike and George managing arrivals, Mike and his team running the start which left the flying finish to Derek and the stop line to Ewan. I had picked up the marshals’ goody bags the previous day and so I started to make the run through the stage to check for safety and distribute the bags to the assembled marshals. Driving through, with the old man Ferry on the notes (well a 1:50000 OS Landranger ) the stage seemed pretty smooth and dry, a bit damp and slippy before junction 5 and a wonderful combination of sweeping bends around the loch. I would have given anything to be stood with some of the spectators that lined the route but this was to be my last view of the stage as duties dictated that I should be at the stop line. It seemed common sense for me to be at the start, seeing as any incident could not be travelled to WD, against rally traffic but the safety manual stated it to be so, so we geared up for our tasks.

When getting to the end of the stage I did realise though that I still had all the bacon, rolls and hot drinks in the back of the car, 8.98 miles away as the crow files from the rest of the team...oops. The rain put pay to any thoughts of the 4 of us eating 12 peoples pig rolls as a constant drizzle started to fall. Spectators marched in their droves up to our post and were dispatched into the stage with a real buzz in the atmosphere. Accents of all kinds passed us showing what an international draw that this event had made. Out of nowhere a man in a 4wd turned up wearing shorts and flip flops. Obviously he had taken a wrong turn as he wasn’t dressed for an end of September Scottish rally but as he got out of the vehicle carrying an oversized walkman (for younger readers they were what I-pods used to be) and microphone attached we wondered what was going on, later finding out that this was WRC’s rally radio’s end of stage reported Colin Clark.

Obviously he had got his dates wrong when compiling his wardrobe, thinking this was the Rallye de Espana weekend but in usual marshal style we stood back and laughed in our gortex and thermals and had no sympathy. I believe that this had been the first time that the radio had been on air for a British national rally but it was a reminder of the media interest in the event across all nations. I managed to get a plug in for Hawick & Border on the broadcast which slightly made up for the fact that we hadn’t been able to get any of our club banners in prominent positions on the stage and managed to confuse the station presenter with my accent which clearly does not come from Hawick. (Ed's note - Jason hails originally from Norfolk).

Suddenly amidst all the banter an engine note was heard in a far off corner of the forest and the radio crew confirmed car 0 was in stage. It was business as usual apart from very dubious communications with the flying finish, the atmospherics and tree cover meaning transmissions were poor to say the least. Luckily we always bring a back up set and between us with a radio in each hand we managed to get the check sheets together. We had heard rumours Vatanen and Alister were out with Meeke struggling to get away from service following an earlier off but we were then treated to the arrivals of the legends, including Vatanen and McRae.

Rumours of Meeke being out were true, sadly after he posted an SS1 time beating many 4wd competitors in his RWD Escort Mk2. Also joining the retirals were Phil Collins and Russell Brookes in the Ascona and Mark 1 Escort respectively. When the time card marking gets under way it’s business as usual but you couldn’t help but be impressed by the machinery on view and more so by the icons within the machines. ‘We’re not worthy’ often came into my head as one after another rallying great stopped at our post. Malcolm Wilson’s navigator was keen to know the end stage times for the previous guys, showing that there was true competition and a point to prove still amongst some in the carnival atmosphere. Certainly hearing some of the comments made from spectators leaving the stage and looking at comments on rally forums the masters were out to put on a show with the regular competitors. It was good to see that most spectators stayed in the stages all day to watch all cars through, it must have been an appropriate conclusion for a seasons rallying for the regular competitors to see such support for this event.

Our stage largely ran without incident, we did have a mini car park about a half mile from the end of stage where 4 cars got themselves parked in ditches and trees and I think all but two or three 4wd cars were changing wheels or straightening suspension just beyond the stop line but no serious incidents were reported.

The last stage, immediately after ours was eventually cancelled following a potentially serious incident when Jimmy McRae slid off the road down a deep ravine into a river, thankfully both crew were unhurt.

I’ve watched the incident on video and it did look terrifying to watch but I’m not going to enter into the debate as to the actions of the spectator who dialled 999. Needless to say the Tayside Fire Service do not have a future in rallying, maybe there were too many ‘navigators’ in the wagon that eventually retired mid stage ( as when things go wrong it’s always the navigators fault!)

We may have missed the action of seeing the cars in stage but it was a privilege to have been there at this great event. I applaud Coltness Car Club and friends for making it all possible and I also thank the Britishrally.co.uk forum members who have donated photographic and video material to this report. Congratulations also to Mark McCulloch and co-driver Craig Wallace for their Scottish Junior Championship win.

                      Clip courtesy of Peter Farrow
 

I hope somewhere far off Colin was looking down on it all, watching with a grin on his face at this, his own tribute. I hope his memory continues long in all of us, the rallying community.

Event report courtesy of Scottish Rally Championship

I quickly called up a search engine and found the press release from Historic Motorsport: “Iconic World Rally Champion, Ari Vatanen, will be reunited with his Co Driver David Richards and his former Team Manager David Sutton when he drives a Gp4 Escort Mk2 RS1800 on the McRae Stages Rally on 27th September 2008.
Ari will be one of four ex-World Champions to appear as a tribute to Colin McRae who was tragically killed last year. The other drivers will be Stig Blomqvist, Hannu Mikkola and Bjorn Waldegard.”

The excitement of such an entry list, let alone on your own doorstep was immense and I quickly rang around all club committee members I could get hold of saying that we must be a part of this piece of rallying history. Unsurprisingly anyone that would listen to my boy like excitement shared the same thoughts and it was confirmed, Hawick and Border were going to get involved.

In contrast though, it raised again the deep feelings of sadness I felt when hearing of the untimely death of Colin McRae, his son Johnny and two family friends in a helicopter crash in September 2007. He was a hero to so many, including me, and I have very special memories of watching the 1995 World Championship battle between him and Carlos Sainz unfold on the Network Q.

Standing in Chatsworth early Sunday morning waiting for my first glimpse of the legend-in-the-making, talking to him briefly as he left Clumber Park and glued to the televised evening rally reports watching him clawing back time to reach the pinnacle of the sport. I was privileged to be at Chester racecourse to see the hysteria of his world championship realised, marvelling as he effortlessly ‘doough-nutted’ the Impreza in front of the fans whilst Derek Ringer held the Saltire aloft.

Incidentally, long before my time of membership, Stage 11 of the 1995 Network Q was an 8.8 mile stage south east of Hawick at Wauchope run by Hawick & Border Car Club.....We therefore had a destiny to be at his tribute.

The confirmed further entrants included Jimmy and Alister McRae, Russell Brookes, the American’s John Buffum, Travis Pastrana and Ken Block and the border’s own FIA World Champion, Louise Aitken-Walker to name but a few.

Alongside the ‘legends’ sideshow was the usual business of the Scottish Rally Championship, Brick & Steel Construction 205 Ecosse and other single make championships which led to a mouth-watering entry of nearly 140 crews.