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.

Robsons triumph over Hynds

The final round of the 2011 Brick & Steel Ecosse Challenge – the Kingdom Stages Rally at Crail on 5th November, 2011 – produced one of the most nail biting and tension packed finishes we have ever seen. It could not have been scripted.

After 7 rallies on forest roads and military range roads all over Scotland, starting in Keilder Forest in March, it was all down to the old wartime bomber station at Crail for the battle for the 205 Ecosse Challenge crown to be settled. 

Water Torture in Perthshire Forests

Brick & Steel Ecosse Challenge competitors on the Colin McRae Forest Stages on 1st October could have been excused for thinking that they should have left their cars at home and taken a boat.  The heavy and consistent rain in the Aberfeldy area of Perthshire on the Friday night and all day Saturday created probably the most demanding conditions that the competitors have seen all this year.

Scoring critical to securing championship

The Colin McRae Forest Stages Rally on 1st October will be the last gravel round of the 2011 Brick & Steel Ecosse Challenge. The final 2 rounds will be on tarmac on Otterburn and Crail.

Tom and Sue Hynd go into the McRae with a 1 point lead over Nick Thorne in the 205 Ecosse Challenge class. But a win in Perthshire will put the Hynd lead almost out of reach of their rivals. However, it could still leave Sean and Iain Robson with a mathematical chance of clinching victory at the last minute. They would need a good score on the McRae and wins on both the last 2 tarmac events. And we should not forget that they did not win in 2010 until the last stage of the last event!! The McRae result will be critical for both teams.

Success on the Merrick for Schoneville and Robson

For the first 3 stages of the Protune Remapping Merrick Stages on 3rd September, 2011 it looked as if all the efforts of the past 3 weeks of Tom and Sue Hynd and their hard working service crew were going to be rewarded with success in this the 5th round of the Brick & Steel 205 Ecosse Challenge. They had to reshell their Peugeot 205 GTi after rolling it several time at the last Championhsip round in Elgin. Tom and Sue were 15 seconds ahead of their big rivals Sean and Iain Robson going into stage 4 of the Merrick.