WARM weather and hot competition were the hallmarks of the Dunoon Presents Argyll Rally last weekend.
Euan Thorburn and Paul Beaton were in scorching form in their Ford Focus WRC to take the win in the latest round of the KNC Groundworks Scottish Rally Championship.
The driver from Duns had to fight for the win every inch of the way against second-placed Garry Pearson and Dale Brown in their rapid Ford Fiesta R5.
Each of the eight stages that covered 42 miles from the Dunoon base were taken at full tilt and neither driver had a moment to relax as Bruce McCombie and co-driver Michael Coutts were waiting to pounce from third spot in their Focus WRC.
An early puncture for Thorburn and Beaton allowed Pearson and Brown to establish a 20-second lead at the first service halt. However, Thorburn showed his true grit on the next gravel stages and clawed back a whole 14 seconds on Stage 4.
He nibbled back a further four seconds on the next stage to trail Pearson by just two seconds. Luck swung in Thorburn’s favour as Pearson and Brown suffered a puncture of their own on Stage 6 and this allowed Thorburn to ease in front by 56 seconds.
For the final two stages of the event, both drivers level-pegged on times, while McCombie and Coutts consolidated their position on the third step of the podium.
Thorburn said: “The stages were awesome. We had a puncture and Garry then had one, so we made the most of it. We struggled to get the tyres to work in the morning, but we’ve got the win. We need another to secure the title, so we are looking forward to the Grampian Forest Rally in August.”
Pearson was pleased with his second place, but knows he needs more wins to challenge for the overall title battle.
He said: “We had good pace on the tighter stages but lost out to Euan on the faster ones and he was going at a fair pace, so we had to admit defeat there. However, we’re going to keep putting on the pressure at the Grampian rally.”
Bruce McCombie and Michael Coutts were delighted with their first podium in 12 months, while Iain Wilson and Chris Williams led home the Scottish 2WD Championship contenders in their Ford Escort Mk2.
