Local hero Faulkner wins in Scottish thriller

Jul 1 2009 by Our Correspondent, Dumfries Standard Wednesday

MIKE FAULKNER kept his Scottish championship campaign well on track with outright victory in a dramatic RSAC Scottish Rally in Dumfries - the fifth round of the Hankook series.

It was the second championship triumph of the season for the Kirtlebridge-based driver and navigator Peter Foy, following their maiden SRC win on the Granite City in April, and it more than made up for the disappointment of a non-finish on last month’s Jim Clark Reivers.

Faulkner powered his Mitsubishi Evo 6 through the classic Dumfries and Galloway stages to finish 13 seconds ahead of rest of the field.

Jock Armstrong and Kirsty Riddick of Castle Douglas secured the final SRC podium spot in their Impreza N11 and extended their championship lead. They were fifth overall.

In the drivers’ standings, Armstrong now has 131 points, with Faulkner second on 103. There is a similar margin between Riddick and Foy in the co-drivers’ championship.

David Bogie of Dumfries remains third in the drivers’ table on 101 points, despite crashing out in his Evo 9 on the fourth stage, after “wheel sensor” problems had affected the handling of the car earlier in the day.

Faulkner and Foy set a blistering pace from the start and were fastest through SS1 Kinharvie by two seconds from Oban’s Willie Bonniwell.

They still had their noses in front after the short Heathhall spectator stage, but only by one second from a hard-charging Bonniwell.

However, on the six-mile Castle O’er stage, Bonniwell picked up a puncture, and Faulkner lost around 20 seconds when he got caught behind the slower car.

The Evo 6 crew quickly regrouped. They were fastest through stages four and five, but were only one second ahead of reigning champion Jimmy Girvan going into the final – and longest test of the day – the 12.75 mile Ae East.

Then disaster struck for the Inverness man when he rolled his Subaru, ensuring Faulkner a famous victory after notching up his fourth fastest stage time of the event.

Faulkner was both delighted, and relieved, at the outcome. He said: “We had a real low in the middle of the day when we lost all that time stuck behind Willie. We went into the stage with five seconds covering the top six and we came out absolutely gutted thinking it was all over.

“But we just drove our hearts out, and it came together. Our championship campaign is certainly up and running.”

Armstrong and Riddick watched the drama unfold around them as they steered a steady course towards the final SRC podium spot – including a second-equal fastest time on the six-mile Castle O’er stage.

Their “moment” came in Ae when Armstrong thought a corner was a lot faster than it was and the car “ended up parked against a tree”, losing the pair a few seconds.

Said Armstrong: “All in all, it’s been a very good day and it’s nice to be on the podium again. The times have been very tight – it’s the turn of the season now where people are looking at collecting as many points as possible, and we’ve achieved that today, so I’m happy.”

One of the “drives of the day” went to Dumfries-born Steven Clark on what was his first SRC event of the year behind the wheel of his venerable Mitsubishi Evo 4.

With sister Alison from Lockerbie occuping the co-driver’s seat, Clark wrung every ounce of horsepower out of the car which he steered to GpN honours in 2008, finishing sixth overall, and fourth in the points.

“It’s been very good – we were second quickest on the first of the Ae stages, and I’m very happy with that. Mike Faulkner was obviously on a charge to take the victory and we were only five seconds down so I think in this old bus that’s quite good,” said Clark.

The Dumfries crew of Davie Hughes and Bruce Harper ended the day 11th overall in their Mitsubishi Evo 9.

Said Hughes: “It’s been good. We were slow on the first stage, that’s the only thing, otherwise, we might have had a better result, but it’s decent enough, and we came through the spectator stage at Heathhall in a minute dead, which was good.”

Newton Stewart’s Craig McMiken, with Christine Sanderson on the notes, secured a top 20 finish, bringing their Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9 back to Dumfries town centre in 16th overall.

“We had a slow start - in fact the first three stages were pretty poor”, said McMiken: “But the last two in Ae were brilliant. I fair enjoyed that last stage, it made up for the whole day!”

It was a more problematical event for fellow farmer Rory Young from Kirkgunzeon, and co-driver Allan Cathers of Carlisle - the pair finishing 29th overall, five minutes adrift of first-placed Faulkner.

“It’s been a difficult day for us after a reasonable start,” said Young, adding: “We got caught out a wee bit with the surface changes and then we got two punctures on both the Ae stages so that put us back quite a bit. We got a puncture half a mile into the Ae West stage so we had to stop and then pulled out behind someone’s dust so lost about 3 and a half minutes.”

In the 2-wheel drive category, the Port William crew of Fraser Wilson and Steven Broll took a well-deserved win in Class 1 in their Vauxhall Nova – in contrast to team-mate Mark McCulloch from Newton Stewart, who left the road on the first Kinharvie stage and ended up embedded in the undergrowth – though damage to the car appeared to be slight.

For Dumfries driver Ian Paterson, the rally took on extra significance. At 1am on the eve of the event, his wife Claire gave birth to their first child: son William weighing in at 7lb 4 oz.

The baby had been due on June 12 and as the days passed Ian saw his chances of competing dwindle. However, as he left the hospital after the successful birth at 5am on Friday , his wife told him: “Go and phone clerk of the Course, Jonathan Lord, and tell him you’re doing the rally!” Said Ian: “I’m absolutely chuffed to bits – a new son AND I get to compete on my home event. Fantastic!”

And for the record, Ian finished a very creditable 17th overall at the wheel of his Subaru Impreza N10.

Full results can be found at www.flyingfinish.co.uk

The sixth round of the Hankook MSA Scottish Rally Championship is the Gleaner Oil & Gas Speyside Stages in Elgin on 8th August.

For news of all SRC rounds go to www.scottishrallychampionship.co.uk

Dumfries and Galloway finishers (*** denotes SRC-registered crew):

1st Mike Faulkner (Kirtlebridge)/Peter Foy (Bingley) Mitsubishi Evo 6 44 mins 23 secs ***

5th Jock Armstrong (Castle Douglas)/Kirsty Riddick (Haugh of Urr) Subaru Impreza 44.54 ***

6th Steven Clark (Holywell)/Alison Clark (Lockerbie) Mitsubishi Evo 4 45.08 ***

11th David Hughes (Dumfries)/Bruce Harper (Dumfries) Mitsubishi Evo 9 46.51 ***

16th Craig McMiken(Newton Stewart)/Christine Sanderson (Berwick) Mitsbushi Evo 9 46.51 ***

17th Ian Paterson (Dumfries)/David Paterson (Dumfries) Subaru Impreza 47.39

29th Rory Young (Dumfries)/Allan Cathers (Carlisle) Mitsubishi Evo 5 49.24 ***

30th Shane McGirr (Fivemiletown)/James Haugh (Castle Douglas) Toyota Starlet 49.26 ***

32nd Stuart Paterson (Dumfries)/Colin Maxwell (Dumfries) Subaru Impreza 49.34

44th Iain Haining (Dumfries)/Mairi Riddick (Haugh of Urr) Vauxhall Nova 51.54

50th Fraser Wilson (Port William)/Steven Broll (Port William) Vauxhall Nova 52.46 ***

54th Duncan Wardrop (Dumfries)/Helen Brown (Dumfries) Mitsubishi Evo 6 53.07

62nd Jim McDowall(Newton Stewart)/Colin Johnstone(Newton Stewart) Mazda 323 Turbo 54.26 ***

77th Ian Bendall (Castle Douglas)/Scott Bendall (Castle Douglas) Vauxhall Corsa 58.29 ***

79th Graeme Smith (Carluke)/Lee Kerr (Dumfries) Peugeot 205 1.02.47