Post by davefiddes on Jul 6, 2003 23:19:40 GMT
Don't know if anyone else went to see the Jim Clark Memorial Rally over the past few days. As Ocean Terminal in Leith is just 30 mins easy walk from my house it seemed stupid to pass up the opportunity to go see some serious motorsport on my doorstep...
Contrary to popular rumour the first two stages of the JCMR were not to be held round the multi-storey carpark in the Ocean Terminal shopping centre...or round the Scottish Executive building (that'd wake up some dozey civil servants
) but in a collection of carparks, roads and a building site in the docks. I figured that they had a cheek charging a fiver to get into the official spectating area (but paid anyway) which didn't actually have the best viewing. Once the good people of Leith had "liberated" a few advertising screens we could all get a decent view of all the fun bits...
It was quite fun watching "our" Minis as they discovered that the world is not just smooth tarmac for the first time! This pic shows Ian Murray scaring himself silly on the transition from rough tarmac to even rougher gravel towards the end of the stage:
Steve Mitchell had to reverse up to take a second cut at going round the Mickey Mouse tractor tyre chicane at the end of the stage:
Everyone seemed to be pushing on somewhat as there were a lot of sparks coming flying out of the front brakes. Jamie Verdon-Anderson's brakes got so hot they were on fire by the end of the stage!
By the time he hit the road section they'd cooled down a little (Note the Mini on the public road with the polis looking on!):
By the second run through though they all seemed to have gotten the hang of this rallying business. Here's a pic of Neil Dugan drifting through a tricky S-bend over rough concrete...just out of shot is a series of very solid looking RSJ roof supports and not a tyrewall or white line in sight!
As you can see they all had to get used to driving in the dark as it was 10:30pm or so by the time they got their second run. All in all a fun Friday night out in Leith.
On Saturday everyone departed nice and early from Ocean Terminal to head to Duns where the real action started...except for me because I was in my bed
...which meant I only got to see one stage before the Minis finished at lunchtime. Oh well.
The stage I did get to see was a bit of a cracker. I was at the end of a tight hairpin behind Manderston Hall on the Chirnside stage. Having watched the International field with all the fancy WRC cars and an endless stream of Evo 6s make a total mess of getting round this hairpin (they don't seem to have any lock these Evos). The FWD Minis (and Kas, 206s and Polos) however all seemed to love sticking their charges into a nice little handbrake flick then planting their feet the the floor and bombing off down the valley. The Minis really seemed to be in their element here and were great to watch. Here's a shot of Michael Connon cutting the corner a bit:
Alasdair McCaig was having a good go at things too:
I think that everyone was enjoying the rally and it was great to see Jimmy McRae out in the celebrity car...he certainly looked like he'd done it before! I passed Ronnie Klos and Findlay Crocker going through Duns en-route to another stage (I think their last) and they were definitely looking a little battle scarred with quite a few new dents and the odd splash of Berwickshire mud on their windows.
Like I said after lunch on Saturday the Minis and the other one-make series dropped out to be replaced by the Scottish Nationals and the historic rally cars. The historics were particularly mad... I saw lots and lots of flying Escorts (Mk1 and Mk2), Lotus Cortinas (including one which rolled
just in front of me) and not a few Porsche 911s. It's a shame the Minis couldn't have gone on a bit longer then I might have been able to see if they could fly as well as Neil Buckley did at Swinton crossroads:
As you can tell I had a great time. It was my first time at the JCMR and I can thoroughly recommend it as a great motorsport weekend out. Can't wait to see it on Channel 4 next Saturday morning to find out who actually won!!! A big thumbs up
to all of the Scottish Minis who took part!
Contrary to popular rumour the first two stages of the JCMR were not to be held round the multi-storey carpark in the Ocean Terminal shopping centre...or round the Scottish Executive building (that'd wake up some dozey civil servants
) but in a collection of carparks, roads and a building site in the docks. I figured that they had a cheek charging a fiver to get into the official spectating area (but paid anyway) which didn't actually have the best viewing. Once the good people of Leith had "liberated" a few advertising screens we could all get a decent view of all the fun bits...It was quite fun watching "our" Minis as they discovered that the world is not just smooth tarmac for the first time! This pic shows Ian Murray scaring himself silly on the transition from rough tarmac to even rougher gravel towards the end of the stage:
Steve Mitchell had to reverse up to take a second cut at going round the Mickey Mouse tractor tyre chicane at the end of the stage:
Everyone seemed to be pushing on somewhat as there were a lot of sparks coming flying out of the front brakes. Jamie Verdon-Anderson's brakes got so hot they were on fire by the end of the stage!
By the time he hit the road section they'd cooled down a little (Note the Mini on the public road with the polis looking on!):By the second run through though they all seemed to have gotten the hang of this rallying business. Here's a pic of Neil Dugan drifting through a tricky S-bend over rough concrete...just out of shot is a series of very solid looking RSJ roof supports and not a tyrewall or white line in sight!
As you can see they all had to get used to driving in the dark as it was 10:30pm or so by the time they got their second run. All in all a fun Friday night out in Leith.
On Saturday everyone departed nice and early from Ocean Terminal to head to Duns where the real action started...except for me because I was in my bed
...which meant I only got to see one stage before the Minis finished at lunchtime. Oh well.The stage I did get to see was a bit of a cracker. I was at the end of a tight hairpin behind Manderston Hall on the Chirnside stage. Having watched the International field with all the fancy WRC cars and an endless stream of Evo 6s make a total mess of getting round this hairpin (they don't seem to have any lock these Evos). The FWD Minis (and Kas, 206s and Polos) however all seemed to love sticking their charges into a nice little handbrake flick then planting their feet the the floor and bombing off down the valley. The Minis really seemed to be in their element here and were great to watch. Here's a shot of Michael Connon cutting the corner a bit:
Alasdair McCaig was having a good go at things too:
I think that everyone was enjoying the rally and it was great to see Jimmy McRae out in the celebrity car...he certainly looked like he'd done it before! I passed Ronnie Klos and Findlay Crocker going through Duns en-route to another stage (I think their last) and they were definitely looking a little battle scarred with quite a few new dents and the odd splash of Berwickshire mud on their windows.
Like I said after lunch on Saturday the Minis and the other one-make series dropped out to be replaced by the Scottish Nationals and the historic rally cars. The historics were particularly mad... I saw lots and lots of flying Escorts (Mk1 and Mk2), Lotus Cortinas (including one which rolled
just in front of me) and not a few Porsche 911s. It's a shame the Minis couldn't have gone on a bit longer then I might have been able to see if they could fly as well as Neil Buckley did at Swinton crossroads:As you can tell I had a great time. It was my first time at the JCMR and I can thoroughly recommend it as a great motorsport weekend out. Can't wait to see it on Channel 4 next Saturday morning to find out who actually won!!! A big thumbs up
to all of the Scottish Minis who took part!
