David Henderson and Chris Lees took the Voyonic Grampian Forest Rally win by just 3 seconds in one of the most competitive and closely fought events the KNC Groundworks Scottish Rally Championship has seen in recent years.
Only 9 seconds covered the top 5 crews after almost 44 miles of very slippery and challenging Kincardineshire stages to the south of the Milton of Crathes base.
The opening stages had belonged to the new partnership of Michael Binnie & Emily Easton-Page. The Ford Fiesta R5 crew were fastest on the opening 3 stages and 4th fastest on stage 4 to lead at 2nd service by 10 seconds. This was despite intercom issues and the car overheating and going into road mode on SS4.
Stage 5 was where things would dramatically change at the front, a sudden heavy downpour making the surface incredibly slippery. Binnie and Easton-Page would roll the Fiesta out of the lead on this stage, thankfully without injury.
Henderson and Lees were 3rd after 4, delayed on the morning loop slightly with a wrong tyre choice. They were equal fastest with Finlay Retson & Paul Beaton in stage 5, despite flirting with the trees themselves.
That left them with a three second lead going into the final stage where 2nd equal fastest with their nearest rivals gave the Fiesta Rally2 team the win.
Championship leaders Jock Armstrong and Hannah McKillop’s Subaru Impreza heading into 2nd service tied on time with team-mates Mark McCulloch and Michael Hendry in their Proton Satria Evo.
After Binnie’s off, McCulloch & Hendry were 3 seconds down on Henderson & Lees with just one stage to go. Mark & Michael also survived their own trip through the scenery on stage 5. Amazingly they would tie over the final stage, unable to close that gap to the leaders.
Armstrong & McKillop were also pushing hard right to the very end, fastest time on the final test giving them the final step on the podium, only 2 seconds off 2nd place and consolidating their positions at the top of the championship standings.
Equal fastest time on the penultimate stage had put Retson & Beaton on the podium going into the last stage, but a 2 second advantage was flipped to a 2 second deficit with the Impreza crews fastest time over those final 7 miles.
Rounding out the top 5 and only 2 seconds off 4th place was another impressive and solid performance from local driver John Wink and co-driver Neil Shanks in their Hyundai i20 R5.
With both Steve Bannister and Matthew Robinson making the trip north Stuart Egglestone & Brian Hodgson had made a last-minute decision to do the same. It was a good call from the Ford Escort MK2 crew, the Pinto powered car taking top Autoshop 2wd and Albyn Garage Challengers honours.
Jim Robertson & Mike Curry guided their Mk2 Escort to another Haddo Energy Super Seniors win. There was another close battle for top Ladies honours between Aileen Forrest and Meghan O’Kane.
All of which gave Aileen a win on her home event after another good battle, conquering this event after her big off into a river last year.
PROVISIONAL OVERALL TOP 5 AFTER ROUND 6 – DRIVERS
1. Jock Armstrong 140pts
2. John Wink 132pts
3. Mark McCulloch 122pts
4. Stephen Petch 116pts
5. David Henderson 112pts
PROVISIONAL OVERALL TOP 5 AFTER ROUND 6 – CO-DRIVERS
1. Hannah McKillop 140pts
2. Neil Shanks 126pts
3. Michael Hendry 121pts
4. Michael Wilkinson 116pts
5. Paul Beaton 112pts
