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Stirlingshire driver Gary Adam continued his dominance of the 2007 County Saab Scottish Rally Championship on a wet RSAC Scottish Rally with the narrowest of wins over reigning champion Dave Weston. Driving a Subaru Impreza, Dollar-based Adam pipped his Aberdeenshire rival by only three seconds after forty-five miles of Dumfries forest stages to record his third championship win of the season. Although Ford Focus WRC driver Weston set the fastest time on four of the event’s six stages, a shaky start for the Operations Director from Findon allowed Adam to scrape a victory.
It was revealed at the finishing ramp, however, that Adam had been fighting a mild illness over the duration of the rally. “Gary is heading off to Portugal for a family holiday and then on to India immediately afterwards,” explained father and co-driver Gordon Adam. “He only told me yesterday that he had been to the doctor to get inoculated before going to India, so he’d been feeling a bit under the weather all day and went to rest immediately after the rally.”
Behind Adam and Weston – who had an action-packed day on his return to SRC action, including ending one stage airborne and upside-down as he crossed the finishing line - Inverness restaurateur and former champion Jimmy Girvan kept his quest for a second title alive with a hard-fought podium place in his Subaru Impreza alongside Mike Ramsay. Seasoned campaigner Jim Carty recorded his best result so far this season with fourth place in a Subaru Impreza WRC, and Steven Clark/Lee Kerr took Group N – showroom standard – honours and an impressive fifth place outright in their ageing Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 4.
The result reinforces 38 year-old Adam’s lead at the head of the series points table, with main rival Mike Faulkner of Gretna struggling with a shoulder injury all day long and fellow frontrunner Malloch Nicoll floundering in the slippery conditions. Early pacesetter Neale Dougan was forced to retire his newly acquired Subaru Impreza WRC early on in the event due to turbo failure in the Forest of Ae, however the County Saab Managing Director will doubtless be planning to return to the forests and secure a victory before the end of the year. Likewise, 2006 champion Dave Weston made clear his intentions of contesting the remaining Scottish Championship rounds as he prepares for a full-scale assault on Britain’s World Rally Championship Round, Wales Rally GB, in November.
Among the two-wheel drive runners, mechanical problems for Calum Mackenzie and punctures for Steve Bannister allowed Tarland builder George McDonald to take the class honours in an Opel Corsa S1600. The real two-wheel drive star on the Scottish, however, was Alford youngster Fraser Gellan, who finished only ten seconds behind McDonald in a 1.6-litre Mark 2 Ford Escort thanks to some flat-out, committed driving that thrilled spectators and left his rivals stunned.
The County Saab Scottish Rally Championship competitors now have a six-week break to refettle their cars before the Gleaner Oil and Gas Speyside Stages in Elgin on Saturday, 18 August. There may only be three rounds of Scotland’s top motorsport series still to run, but with at least two extremely competitive cars returning to the fray and numerous drivers looking to put on a late surge in the title race, Gary and Gordon Adam can’t expect to have it all their own way.
RSAC Scottish Rally - Dumfries, 30 June 2007 – Leading Results
1. Gary Adam/Gordon Adam (Subaru Impreza) 43 minutes 24 seconds;
2. Dave Weston/Aled Davies (Ford Focus WRC) 43:27;
3. Jimmy Girvan/Mike Ramsay (Subaru Impreza) 44:31;
4. Jim Carty/Neil Shanks (Subaru Impreza WRC) 45:00;
5. Steven Clark/Lee Kerr (Mitsubishi Lancer) 45:18.
County Saab MSA Scottish Rally Championship – Leading Overall Positions After Five Rounds (provisional)
1. Gary Adam (Dollar) 134 points;
2. Mike Faulkner (Gretna) 118;
3. Jimmy Girvan (Inverness) 109;
4. David Bogie (Dumfries) 105;
5. Rory Young (Dumfries) 100.
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