Brick and Steel forces in gear at the Reivers’ Rally

May 23 2008

THE Brick and Steel 205 Ecosse Challenge heads to Kelso this weekend for the Jim Clark Reivers’ Rally, a highlights of Scotland’s rallying calendar.

Along with the Tour of Mull, it is the only event in Scotland to offer competitors the chance to drive flat-out on closed public roads.

The Challenge teams are in action on Sunday’s Reivers rally, running parallel to the international event.

The Perthshire crews going for honours in the popular one-make rally challenge are hugely-fired up ahead of the trip to the Borders after a successful outing on the Granite City Rally last month.

Leading the Big County teams away from the start line at Kelso Racecourse will be Blair Atholl fencer Jamie Stewart, who has chief mechanic Chris McCrone in the left-hand seat for the tarmac test. Stewart goes into the Clark on the back of a fine second-place 1.6-litre Challenge finish up at the Granite, when his brand-new car performed faultlessly on the stage.

Down the road in Perth, lift engineer Scott Murray is hoping to return to the blistering pace he showed at the start of the year after making a cautious comeback from a big accident back at the start of April.

Murray (24) finished the Granite fourth in class, but has a raft of car improvements planned to keep his 1600 Challenge title bid on track.

And whilst regular co-driver David O'Brien is otherwise engaged for the blast on the closed country lanes, Scott has an able stand-in lined up in Borders youngster Ewan Leeming.

Just as important as the driver is the guy in the left-hand seat, as Pitlochry's Jozef Stuchlak is proving.

The Czech originally harboured ambitions of driving himself, but elected to call out the notes for Carluke junior driver Graeme Schoeneville.

Normally, the switch of surface from two forest rallies to a tarmac rally catches some crews unawares, but both Jamie Stewart and Scott Murray have shown their pace on tarmac.

It wouldn't be too much of a surprise if the Perthshire 205 Challenge crews beat the locals in their own back yard on Sunday.