Flying Scotsman day three

Another great day on the road from Turnberry to Gleneagles. We did our best but lost a few seconds on the tests and I made a timing error on the last regularity costing 15 seconds so we slipped back to 8th place by the smallest of margins. Only 40 seconds separated 5th to 8th place!

Well done to winners Bill Cleydert and Leigh Powley who nursed their car to the finish where it expired as it crossed the line with a broken propshaft!

Another well organised event with superb roads and technical sections. Now to get ready for the London-Lisbon event at the end of April.

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Flying Scotsman day two.

A day of mixed fortune. We collected a dent in a front wing by nudging a steel gate on a farmyard test and lost half the exhaust on a high speed TC section on army land. Luckily neither had any major effect to our progress. The bump cost 30 seconds penalty and the exhaust was retrieved by Rob on the sweep crew team and was refitted this evening.. my ears are now just about recovered.

Competition wise we did well enough to climb two places to 6th with just tomorrow to go. It’s still a long way to Gleneagles so fingers crossed…..

Flying Scotsman day one.

My birthday today and what better way to celebrate than with friends on a rally.

Pretty quick on the tests and good on the regularities but we collected 34 seconds due to baulking on a twisty hill top pass behind a lorry and 10 because a Bentley was parked (temporarily) in a Ford. None the less we are 8th overall and 2nd in class with an obscenely early start tomorrow…

The Flying Scotsman 2019

I’ve not done this one for a while.. it’s always a great event for pre war cars only, the competitors are probably the most fun of all the rallies and there is boundless enthusiasm and camaraderie between us all.

Our long journey started yesterday morning from home to near Windermere in the Lake District and we arrived late in the evening having travelled through all four seasons including snow.

Today has been filled with scruitineering, paperwork and some minor repairs and adjustments to our Frazer Nash 328.

I’m really looking forward to the start tomorrow.

Winter Trial leg 8

The final leg began in Linz and sent us back to Salzburg almost to where we began 3000kms ago. You almost expect there to be a sting in the tail from the organisers but the two regularities were straight forward and we had a bit of fun on an ice circuit.

Our final result was 18th overall and 5th in class. About where I expected to be prior to the start.

As ever a hugely enjoyable adventure in challenging conditions and big thanks must go to Herman, my driver, all Bart’s team at Classic Events for putting on the event. Mark Appleton for designing the route, GaugePilot for the best navigational instrument on the market and Volvo for having the foresight in building a car over 50 years ago that’s still brilliant!

Winter Trial legs 6 and 7

What a day! Mixed fortunes with a trip to a snowy ditch avoiding an oncoming vehicle, more winter wonderland and a superb and challenging night section made particularly hard as the roads went from dry through snowy to sheet ice, but unpredictability on every corner. We went well, lost some time after the ‘off piste excursion’ but rescued it and had a straight forward night section.

Last day tomorrow and there will certainly be some surprises!

Winter Trial leg 5

An amazing day with some winter wonderland scenery. They really had an awful LOT of snow recently!

The day went respectably well with some interesting regularities, an ice test and a very enjoyable navigation section. Great fun in sunny Austria

Tomorrow we go north to the Czech Republic for some more of the same and the infamous Winter Trial night loop. Late night coming up!!