Drivers will be “flat out” at this weekend’s rally

Oct 7 2011 by Greg Christison, Perthshire Advertiser Friday

MOTORSPORT fanatics will observe the world’s top rally drivers push themselves “flat out” in Perthshire this weekend, according to one organiser.

Clerk of the course, Iain Campbell believes that spectators attending the Rally of Scotland, the penultimate date in the Intercontinental Rally Challenge (IRC), will be in for a treat as the top six vie for number one place in the standings.

Jan Kopecký (128 points), Thierry Neuville (103), Freddy Loix (103), Juho Hänninen (98), Bryan Bouffier (88) and Andreas Mikkelsen (74) will compete for vital points ahead of the IRC finale in Cyprus in early November.

Speaking to the PA yesterday, Mr Campbell said: “We are in our third year here now and this is the best number of international entries to date.

“The top six in the IRC will all be here, including 18 super 2000 cars.

“This is the penultimate rally and with the standings still wide-open, they will be going flat out to save every tenth of a second.

“The last rally was won by 1.5 seconds and the one before by three tenths of a second, which is not even the length of a car, after 200km of competitive driving.”

Revealing the courses were in top condition after last weekend’s Colin McRae Rally, Mr Campbell admitted adverse weather could keep things interesting.

He continued: “The teams have been out on reconnaissance this afternoon, which gives them the chance to prepare their pace notes ahead of the rally.

“And all the drivers are really complimentary of the stages.

“The make up of the roads means that they are very, very fast and there are lots of undulating parts and several crests.

“The open corners mean that the drivers can get stuck into them so they prefer for the road to be rough so they get as much grip as possible.”

He went on: “The stages were used last weekend for the Colin McRae Rally and 100 cars passed through. So, the Forestry Commission’s engineering guys have been up there doing reinstatement work.

“There is a covering snow at the top of the hill at Errochty, who knows, we might get an early winter this year!

“The courses are very, very slippy due to the amount of rain we’ve had.

“Who knows what the weather will bring, it depends what websites you look at. So far, we’ve seen gales, snow and dry weather all reported so far!

“The competitors will find the conditions as they are and we will continue to assess the situation with our safety crews and make any required amendments.”