At the end of a superb week's rallying just one second separated the Mercedes Benz 280SL of Ian Crammond and Carolyn Ward from a clean sweep of major awards on this year's Classic Malts Scottish Reliability Trial.
The historic regularity rally was flagged away from Edinburgh Castle by Lord MacFarlane on Sunday 16 September, and covered nearly 1,200 miles around the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, taking in some of the finest scenery of the British Isles in six days of competition.
The first day's route took crews into the Highlands at Aviemore. As usual, the crews enjoyed a number of stops at the leading whisky distilleries of the region, particularly those of the Classic Malts brand of fine single malts, which hosted a series of off-road driving tests.
Castles were another big attraction: Blair, Fyvie, Inveraray and Duart Castle, the latter the traditional stronghold of the MacLean family on Mull, were just four of those that played host to this year's event.
Many crews lost their chance of a Gold medal for outstanding performance on Day One at the first handling and manoeuvrability driving test, run at Fife Airport: only 18 out of 70 crews were left on Gold standard by the time of the second day's restart.
But already Ian Crammond had laid down his marker. He ended the first day with just seven penalties from regularity and driving tests, never to be bettered over the next five days. Between them, the crew carried off a Gold medal, won First in Class and the Timekeeping Trophy for the best performance on regularity sections. Together with Richard Fenhalls / Heather Milne-Taylor and former racing driver Jac Nelleman, co-driven by Joseph Huber, they carried off the Talisker Trophy for the best Marque Team performance. Their three Mercedes finished the week on an aggregate of just 494 penalties, 927 penalties ahead of their nearest rivals in this keenly-contested competition for the premier award of the event.
The route for this year's Classic Malts trial used the innovation of island-hopping along the west coast of Scotland. After a two-day visit to Skye, offering a rest day at Talisker, hosted by event sponsors Classic Malts of Scotland, crews boarded an early ferry back to the mainland. A drive through the sublime scenery of the west coast led the way to another sea crossing, this time to Mull.
A day's rallying action there used many miles of the annual Tour of Mull stages, and a short break allowed a Route Check visit to the tiny island of Iona, the original home of Christianity in Britain.
The start of the final day saw Paul Wignall's Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint holding a lead of just four seconds over Ian Crammond on the driving test scratch penalties competition. With four more tests, including the classic timed ascent of Rest and be Thankful, it could have gone either way. The two crews tied on times at Inveraray Castle and at Rest and be Thankful, but Wignall had already given away one second at Ederline. On the final test of the event, Wignall dropped another two seconds at Forrestburn - but ended the victor in the overall stakes by the smallest possible of margins, denying Crammond his clean sweep by one second at the end of the day.
A challenge from Crammond and Ward's nearest rivals on regularities, the Porsche Carrera crew of Paul Hernaman and Ray Crowther, looked set to evaporate at the end of the penultimate day. The Porsche finished the Mull leg driving on a broken torsion bar. The crew averted retirement by freighting a replacement to Oban and fitting it overnight, to be on the start line in time for the final day. But they failed to close the gap, and conceded the fight by ten seconds on the entire week.
Among other outstanding performances, Jayne Wignall carried off her fourth consecutive Gold medal out of four attempts at the event. She was navigated by her mother, Beryl Neate, who was a champion rally navigator of the 1950s and 60s.
MGA owner, and one of 15 Gold medallists on the event, Nicholas Pryor, summed up: 'I've done two of the previous three Classic Malts rallies. This one simply has to have been the best so far. Absolutely superb.'
Next year's Classic Malts Scottish Reliability Trial runs from Sunday 12 to Saturday 18 May, and entries are already being accepted. For details contact HERO on 01886 833505; e-mail [email protected] or via www.hero.org.uk. Entries are open to owners of cars built between 1920 and the end of 1974.
