Season finale on the Colin McRae Forest Stages

Joy, despair, spirited driving, over cautious driving, legends renewed, glorious sunshine, testing stage miles, some of the best Perthshire stage miles – they were all there. Yes, it was the final round of the 2012 Brick & Steel Ecosse Challenge – the Colin McRae Forest Stages rally based in Aberfeldy in the heart of Perthshire on a perfect Autumn day on 6th October.

Glentrool sizzler

Nervous anticipation was probably the best way to describe how Brick & Steel Ecosse Challenge competitors felt as they lined up on Saturday 1st September 2012 outside The Town Hall in The Square, Wigtown for the start of the 2012 Ian Broll Merrick Stages – the penultimate round of the 2012 Championship. The nervous anticipation was for a couple of reasons – first, it was going to be important to score good Championship points because 3 of the classes are going to be very close at the end of the year. And second was the prospect of 19 miles of fast and furious driving in the classic Glentrool forest – the second stage of the event and one of the longest in Scottish rallying.

Ian Broll Merrick Stages Preview

The penultimate round of the Brick & Steel Construction Ecosse Challenge heads to the south west corner of Scotland for classic testing stages in the New Galloway region.

A local battle in the Peugeot 205 class between Newton Stewarts  Mark McCulloch who will be trying to head off fellow local Scott Peacock from Castle Douglas. Leading the class is Borders Driver Callum Atkinson who leads by one point from Tom Hynd (Inverbervie), Jordan Black (Lanark) and Adrian Stewart (Aberdeen) so a very tight battle is in prospect. Scott Peacock, Roy McLennan and Mark McCulloch are close behind and will be hoping that the rally goes there way to move them up the points table.

Three title races in one – the Ecosse Challenge

The Gleaner Oil & Gas Speyside Stages will be the round 4 of the 2011 Brick and Steel Ecosse Challenge. We are at the halfway point of the series, and competition is close once again in the 205’s and 1.6 Honda Civics, while in the bigger capacity Civic type R class it’s a story of determined domination.

In the 205 Ecosse Challenge for the venerable Peugeot cars, it’s a North East crew new to the championship who are making consistency pay. Before the season started Adrian Stewart with Richard Simmons alongside was much more comfortable at the wheel of his classic Mini, but anyone with an eye for form would have marked him as one to watch on his ‘modern’ debut, and as his experience grows his pace increases.

Granite City Rally sees the 2nd round

The Coltel Granite City rally sees the return of the 205 and Civic Ecosse Challenge in the forests. After a drama filled Brick & Steel Border Counties rally, things are looking good for the Granite.

Joint winners for rally talent scheme

Two aspiring young rally drivers have been named as joint winners of a prestigious new scholarship run by RSAC Motorsport, in conjunction with the Brick & Steel Ecosse Challenge.

Craig Rutherford from the Isle of Mull and Callum Atkinson from Lauder were both deemed worthy of the award by a panel of judges at the weekend.

The 21-year-olds were up against strong competition from two other finalists, Scott Balgowan from Duns and Scott Peacock from Castle Douglas.

Ecosse Challenge – Border Counties review

A gloriously sunny morning saw the first round of the Brick and Steel Ecosse Challenge, the Border Counties Rally, take place in the shadows of the abbey in Jedburgh. The 40th anniversary of this event was to have mixed fortunes for our 12 crews.

Young Craig Rutherford of Mull and co driver Martin Maccabe were out in the Honda Civic TypeR. Craig seem to take the bull by the horns quickly, on his first event and was setting fast times. “A moment on  SS3 with a ditch and a couple of overshoots on SS4 and SS5 probably cost us 2nd 2WD place to John Boyd. A great event and the car ran well.” said a happy Craig at the finish. He and Martin managed an impressive 25th o/a and 1st Honda Civic TypeR.

Ecosse Challenge enters it’s 10th year

The Brick and Steel Border Counties Rally on 31st March, 2012, based in Jedburgh, will be the opening round of  the Brick & Steel  Ecosse Challenge for 2012. It will also herald the 10th year of the Championship.

And it looks like the season will start with a bang as Roy (rolloverroy) MacLennan has ventured out of retirement after 5 years and is going to battle head to head with fellow Inverbervie resident Tom Hynd. 

Major boost for new rally talent

RSAC Motorsport, the promoters of the Brick and Steel Ecosse Challenge, have launched an exciting new scholarship scheme for young drivers which will run in conjunction with the acclaimed rally series.

The New Talent Scholarship is open to Ecosse Challenge registered drivers who are in their first or second year of stage rallying and who will be under 23 years of age for the first round of the championship on the 17th March 2012.

Ecosse Challenge winners collect their rewards

The annual Prize Giving for the 2011 Brick & Steel Ecosse Challenge was held in the Glasgow Marriott Hotel on Saturday 26th November. An early kick-off at 3.330pm meant that some of the winners could also attend the Scottish Rally Championship event in the evening.