Eighteen-year old Fraser Anderson is set to make his maiden senior rally start in Scotland when he contests the Grampian Rally (Saturday 14 August) in his Baxter and Gillespie-backed Ford Fiesta R2T – although any home advantage is limited to the fact that he once went to spectate on the event, and his rivals from Scotland, England and Ireland have more experience of the fast Aberdeenshire forest stages than he has!
Preparation will be key, as the Helensburgh-based teenager once again studies all the relevant onboard camera footage he can find. Similar detailed pre-event revision worked well for him and co-driver Jack Bowen on the previous round of the British Rally Championship, the Nicky Grist Stages. With no prior experience of the mid-Wales forests, Fraser set fastest BRC Academy Trophy time on seven out of the eight stages to leave Builth Wells tied for the lead of the category with arch-rival Johnnie Mulholland.
And against faster Rally4 competition, Fraser – who is coached by double British Rally Champion Matt Edwards and runs under the ME Rallysport banner – also set an unbeaten run of top 10 stage times in the BRC Junior category (including sixth fastest on the final stage) on the Nicky Grist Stages to finish eighth BRC Junior and 42nd overall.
Having also finished runner-up in the BRC Academy Trophy section on the opening Neil Howard Stages, Fraser has already amassed 43 points from the first two events and is already 28 points ahead of third placed Charlie Todd.
“Scotland is notorious for having fast stages, and even after the first look at the Grampian Rally onboard footage I can safely say that I’ve never done such high-speed stages before. It’s all really fast and flowing and I’m really looking forward to starting the event,” says Fraser.
“Preparation will be key. I’ll go through the videos with Jack my co-driver, I’ll memorise where all the really bad places are, and then on the recce it will just be a case of double checking everything and making the most accurate pace notes that we can. It’s what we did last time out on the Nicky Grist Stages and it worked out very well for us.
“I was pleased with our performance last time out. The set up on the Fiesta was slightly off in the morning. The rear was a little stiff and the back of the car was breaking away and sliding around too much. The team made some changes at the mid-day service halt and it was much better in the afternoon, so overall we were pretty pleased to come away with a good result and the British Rally Championship Academy Trophy win.
“I feel that I’m faster than Johnnie [Mulholland] on gravel, so we have to make the most of our opportunities on the Grampian and other loose surface rallies before we get to the asphalt rounds, where I have little or no experience whatsoever.
“With that in mind, there is only one target next and that is to win the Grampian Rally. We haven’t got much of a home advantage as I’ve only ever been to watch the event once, but I want to score a good result on this, my first senior rally in Scotland.”
A capacity 120 car field will start the Grampian Rally from Banchory at 08.41 on Saturday 14 August. Ahead will be six ultra-fast stages totalling 43.46 stage miles in the Fetteresso and Drumtochty forest complexes. There are two service halts (after SS2 and SS4) in Crathes, while the first car will finish at 16.52.
Owing to Covid-19 restrictions, spectators are not permitted – but fans can follow Fraser’s progress via his, the event’s and the BRC’s social media channels.
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