Argyll Stages Rally - (Sat) 22 Jun 19

Seeded Entry List

Posted: June 20, 2019 9:05 AM

Argyll Stages Rally - (Sat) 22 Jun 19 - SEEDED ENTRY LIST

Dunoon all set for Scottish showdown at the Argyll Rally

Posted: June 20, 2019 9:02 AM

The Dunoon Presents Argyll Rally will play host to round four of the KNC Groundworks Scottish Rally Championship this Saturday (22 June) as some of the best rally drivers in the country head to the region to do battle over 40 miles of Argyll and Bute forest roads.

Backed by Dunoon Presents and the local community, the event has attracted a quality field of entries all bidding to add their name to the winner’s trophy which includes an impressive list such as Roger Clark and Jimmy McRae and could see a crucial battle in the SRC title chase played out in the forests around Dunoon.

With the event’s origins harking back to the early 1970s, the Argyll Rally was resurrected by current event organisers Mull Car Club in 2017 and has hosted a round of the Scottish Championships ever since. This year, it is also a round of the Gazzard Accounts SD34 MSG Stage Rally Championship and the SG Petch ANECCC Stage Rally Championship.

As one of the most popular annual events in Dunoon, motorsport fans will be able to get a great taste of the action with four chances to see the cars at high-speed thanks to dedicated spectator areas in the forests.

In a bid to offer the sometimes-lesser powered cars the best road conditions on the stages, a change to the format has been introduced for 2019 which will see the two-wheel-drive cars run at the head of the field – fastest first. This means, leading the rally away from Dunoon on Saturday morning will be Dumfries driver Mark McCulloch and co-driver Michael Hendry in their rapid BMW E30 but all eyes will undoubtedly be on the four-wheel-drive category.

Winners of the Argyll Rally in 2017 and current SRC leaders, Euan Thorburn and Paul Beaton will carry the coveted number one on the door of their Ford Focus WRC. Winning all but one of the events they have contested so far this season, they are firm favourites to scoop another win and almost certainly seal the SRC title.

But behind them, a gaggle of top-level crews will be aiming to unhinge the Duns driver with fellow townsman Garry Pearson being the most likely to do so. Driving his Ford Fiesta R5 with Welshman Dale Bowen alongside, Pearson needs a top result to take the SRC fight to the final two rounds and starts at number two.

That will not be an easy task, with Jock Armstrong and Cammy Fair another crew looking for their first win of the 2019 season in their Subaru Impreza. They start at car three, with the Hyundai i20 R5 of John Wink and Neil Shanks behind them on the road at four. Bruce McCombie and Michael Coutts make the trip from Banchory in their Focus WRC and round out the top five.

Picking a winner will be a difficult task this weekend and around 55 cars will be tackling classic stages such as Gairletter Bishops Glen, Glenbranter and Coire Ealt.

Watching the event both on and off the stages offers a great chance to see some of the finest rally drivers at work and there will be plenty of opportunities to do so during the weekend.

Based once again at Dunoon Stadium, the rally kicks off on Friday 21st June with pre-event checks from around 3:00 pm. The Stadium will also play host to Rally HQ and the service area for the rally on Saturday with entertainment and a planned live stream of the action to a large TV in the service park. Crews visit three times during the day from around 10:00 am onwards.

The event will commence with a now traditional ceremonial start at Dunoon Pier on Saturday morning at 9:00 am before heading into the stages. The first of which is Glenbranter which is situated on the A815 north from Dunoon near Glenbranter village. The stage is run twice, at 9:30 am and 1:30 pm.

Bishops Glen is situated just a stone’s throw from Dunoon along the A518. The spectator area offers good viewing of a fast downhill section just after the start into a sweeping right-hand bend before heading back uphill. The spectator area will have toilets and a food van, t-shirts and programmes are also available. It is also run twice, firstly at 11:40 am and again at 3:30 pm.

The ceremonial finish rounds off the event back at the Stadium from around 4.20pm. Full spectator details, maps and entry details are available at www.argyllrally.co.uk

You can keep up to date on the event with planned live broadcasting via their social media feeds.

ARGYLL COULD PROVE PIVOTAL IN SRC TITLE CHASE

Posted: June 18, 2019 7:41 AM

The KNC Groundworks Scottish Rally Championship (SRC) returns this weekend (22nd June) as the series speeds to Argyll & Bute for the Dunoon Presents Argyll Rally.

Double SRC champions Euan Thorburn and Paul Beaton head into the event with targets glued to their backs courtesy of two event wins from three, but there are plenty of pretenders vying to stop them in their tracks.

Since returning to the SRC calendar in 2017, the winner in Argyll has gone on to win the championship, so the omens are in place for the eventual victor on Saturday.

It’s a dangerous statistic if you’re anyone other than Thorburn and Beaton, who are currently in prime position to claim their third SRC title at the half-way point of the season.

Thorburn and Beaton will fancy their chances in Argyll though. In their Ford Focus WRC05, they’ve had a near flawless start to their season with six event wins from seven starts across two championships.

However, the duo have been challenged hard in all three of the SRC rounds so far this season, chiefly by Ford Fiesta R5 crew Garry Pearson and Dale Bowen.

Pearson and Bowen had led the Border Counties Rally before a costly spin mid-way through the event dropped them down to second place.

The pair were in the thick of the battle on the Speyside Stages too before slowly rolling into retirement.
The RSAC Scottish Rally was the closest battle of the season, as Thorburn, Pearson and eventual winner David Bogie were all separated by just 20 seconds at the end of the rally; Pearson third, but only just.

Pearson knows he has to get the better of Thorburn this weekend in order to realise his dream of becoming Scottish Rally Champion, so the battle promises to be fierce.

Jock Armstrong and Cameron Fair have a hat-trick of top five finishes under their belts thus far in 2019, with a podium finish on the Speyside a definite highlight.

The pair’s Subaru Impreza is beginning to lose touch with the WRC and R5 machinery right at the sharp end, but the 2015 and ’16 champion’s prowess behind the wheel is unquestionable. Armstrong will be vying for another rostrum finish in Argyll.

John Wink and Neil Shanks are also a likely threat in their Hyundai i20 R5. The pair faced a race against time to make it to Argyll following an off on a non-championship round earlier this month. Thankfully, the i20 is ready to go with Wink seeking a strong result to make amends.

Bruce McCombie and Michael Coutts have steadily bedded themselves into life behind the wheel of a Ford Focus WRC. The duo scored their best result in the car so far on the Scottish with fifth, and traditionally have gone well in Argyll with third place the result last year.

Michael Binnie and Claire Mole have been tantalisingly close to the podium in 2019, twice losing out to Freddie Milne this season by just a handful of seconds. The Mitsubishi Evo IX crew are confident the brake issues that plagued their Scottish Rally have been cured so will be pushing for a strong result on Saturday.

Alan Dickson and Martin Forrest are fresh from an outright podium on the recent Carlisle Stages in their Mitsubishi Evo IX. Their mission will be to transfer that form back into the SRC and onto the classic Argyll stages.

Simon Hay and Calum Jaffray are set to make a welcome return to the SRC after a trying season in their Mitsubishi Evo VI. The pair failed to start the Border Counties Rally, and then crashed on the first forest stage of the Speyside.

Electing to skip the Scottish as they assessed the damage, they are back and ready to put on a good showing in Argyll.

The Albyn Garage SRC Challengers series has witnessed an incredibly close fight all season long between Keith Morris, Ian Baumgart, Alan Dickson, Scott Macbeth and Thomas Gray.

Macbeth will unfortunately skip Argyll due to work commitments, but the battle between the remaining quartet is poised to be superb.

The Scottish 2WD Championship is headed by Gordon Murray after three of the six rounds, but the Ford Escort Mk2 pilot is yet to win a round.

Those honours have gone to fellow Mk2 drivers Paddy Munro, Duncan MacDonald and Iain Wilson thus far, with Paul McErlean also in the thick of the championship battle courtesy of his fantastic consistency.

Carl Tuer is an outside bet in his Suzuki Swift Maxi, having shown superb pace throughout the season. Angus Lawrie also makes a welcome return to the SRC, behind the wheel of a Citroen C2 R2 MAX for the first time on gravel.

The Dunoon Presents Argyll Rally consists of 42 fantastic stage miles, split into two loops of four stages. Classics such as Glenbranter and Coire Ealt are on the itinerary, as well as a brand new stage which is poised to test the driver’s mettle.

It all gets underway at Dunoon Stadium at 9am, before the winners return to the stadium to spray the champagne after 4pm.

The KNC Groundworks Ltd Scottish Rally Championship is supported by Royal Aero, Pirelli Motorsport, Moates Offshore Ltd, Albyn Garage Ltd, RAVENOL and Reis Motorsport Insurance.

Keep up to date with all the latest news via the championship's official website, Facebook, Twitter or Instagram using the hashtag #SRC19.

Dunoon Presents Argyll Rally shaping up to be a “classic year”

Posted: May 31, 2019 4:08 PM

The Dunoon Presents Argyll Rally launched last week as one of the region’s most popular events on the calendar returns for the third successive year on June 22nd, with new challenges for competitors in the KNC Groundworks Scottish Rally Championship.

Backed by Dunoon Presents and the local community, the event will once again see some of the best drivers in Scotland and beyond heading to Dunoon to compete across classic Argyll and Bute forests stages with a brand-new test added to the mix in 2019.

Returning after a ten-year sabbatical in 2017, the rally is steeped in history having originated from the early 1970s. The last event of that era was run in 2003, ending a 40-year history but was resurrected by current event organisers Mull Car Club in 2017.

Two successful years have passed and 2019 marks the third running of the event in its current format, having attracted a huge range of competitors from across the UK over the last two years.

Two-time Scottish champions Euan Thorburn and Paul Beaton added their names to an illustrious list of winners in 2017 which include Roger Clark and Jimmy McRae after taking victory in their Ford Fiesta R5. Last year, Andrew Gallagher and Jane Nicol stamped their name on the trophy, driving their Ford Focus WRC to victory and subsequently the Scottish title.

On Friday 21st June, pre-event scrutiny and documentation will take place at Dunoon Stadium from around 2:00pm. The Stadium will also play host to Rally HQ and the service area for the rally on Saturday.

To bring rallying into the heart of the community, the event will commence with a ceremonial start in Dunoon on Saturday morning with two-wheel-drive crews getting to sample the quality stages first.

A total of eight stages offering 42 miles of competitive driving are on offer for crews, with the new Gairletter complex adding to the classic tests such as Bishops Glen, Glenbranter and Coire Ealt. Two-wheel-drive crews will run first on the road to take advantage of prime road conditions and low liaison mileage will help to assist with costs. Lucky finishers will return to spray the champagne at around 4.00pm back at the Stadium.

Chris Woodcock, Clerk of the Course for the event has been working hard to bring the rally back to the region in 2019 and believes this year’s offering could see the event produce a “classic”.

“We have had to overcome a few challenges over the past few weeks, but I’m delighted that we are now back on track thanks to support from our backers, sponsors and championships,” he said.

“After our recent route survey, I can confirm the stages are genuinely some of the best I have ever seen in Scotland and we have done everything we can to use only the smoothest stages. Introducing the new Gairletter test has brought a new dynamic to the rally and I’m confident every single competitor will enjoy what we have created this year”.

The event is a qualifying round of the KNC Groundworks Scottish Rally Championship, the Gazzard Accounts SD34 MSG Stage Rally Championship and the SG Petch ANECCC Stage Rally Championship.

The rally is backed by Dunoon Presents and the local community, all of which make the event possible.

Spectator information will be available closer to the event. You can keep up to date on the event via their social media feeds.

Online entry is now available alongside event regulations:

On Line Entry / Regulations / Details

Posted: May 30, 2019 9:18 AM

On Line Entry:

www.rallies.info/webentry/2019/argyll

Argyll Stages - www.argyllrally.co.uk