Poor results for Lanarkshire drivers at RSAC Scottish Rally

Jul 10 2008 by George Topp, Hamilton Advertiser

THE RSAC Scottish Rally, latest round of the County Saab Scottish Rally Championship, was one Lanarkshire drivers would rather forget.

Amongst the casualties were Carnwath farmer Walter Henderson and his Luxembourg-based co-driver Jim Kinloch.

The former Scottish champions made a return to rallying this year, after several years away from the sport.

But after starting off well their season has suddenly started to go downhill.

On the Scottish their Subaru Impreza sustained heavy damage. Ironically it had only just been returned after extensive gearbox repairs following problems on the previous round, the Jim Clark Reivers.

Bothwell teenager Alick Kerr finished a disappointing 61st in his Leaker Ford Fiesta, after suffering recurring mechanical problems.

The 19-year-old was forced to crawl through several miles of the opening stage in first gear after experiencing an electrical problem on his Leaker Fiesta.

The fault disappeared for the next stage, only to re-appear on the third, dropping more time for the county driver.

Mechanics managed to fix the fault at service, only for the crew to get a four minute time penalty for arriving at the start of the next stage early.

To make matters worse they picked up two punctures on that same stage, losing even more time.

The Scottish was also a counter in the Brick and Steel 205 Ecosse Challenge, a one make series for Peugeot 205s which has attracted a number of entries from country drivers.

Amongst them was Luke McLaren, whose problems began before he’d even reached the first stage.

The alternator on the Crossford landscape gardener’s car packed in en-route to the first stage.

However Luke and co-driver Anca Baltac were able to carry out running repairs and made their way into the stages with only a slight time delay.

Anca, a law student and part-time model from the Clyde Valley, has moved up to third place in the co-drivers’ title race.

A lack of rear brakes affected their drive, eventually finishing seventh in the Ecosse series, and 65th overall.

Not so fortunate were Scott Erskine and Graeme Schoeneville.

Biggar greenkeeper Erskine was the first Challenge competitor to fall by the wayside, rolling his Peugeot on the opening Ae West test and breaking both the front and rear windscreens.

“I decided to swap the car for the air-conditioned model halfway through the first stage!” joked Erskine.

The driver did get back on his wheels after the roll but had lost too much time and was deleted from the results later on in the day.

Carluke Saab specialist Schoeneville dropped out with fuel pump failure early on in the rally.

However, officials let him head back out onto the stages to get more miles under his belt.