OPEN your Scottish motorsport advent calendar this weekend and you’ll find it packed with goodies.
The big treat on Sunday is the arrival of the Motorsport News Circuit Rally Championship at Knockhill and plenty of the country’s best crews will be there.
Dollar driver Ashleigh Morris and co-driver Jamie Mactavish will be in action at the Fife circuit in their Ford Fiesta R2 as they contest the full season.
Ashleigh said: “I can’t wait to get back out at Knockhill. It’s a fantastic track and venue, and it’s home turf for both of us. The layout gives us plenty of driving time and it’s great for spectators, too.”
Other names to watch out for include John Marshall and Scott Crawford in their Skodaru that’s a hybrid made up of a Skoda Fabia and Subaru Impreza.
Barry Groundwater and Sean Donnelly will also be in among the frontrunners in their Subaru Impreza, while Brian Watson is in another Impreza. Kyle Adam and Fiona Moir are flying the flag for classic rally cars with their Ford Escort.
There’s plenty more period rally machinery heading to Scotland as the Land’s End to John o’ Groats Rally, or LE JOG as it’s affectionately known, heads into Scotland on Monday and Tuesday.
This gruelling four-day event spends half its time on Scottish stages and is open to all cars built up to the end of 1985, so there’s a huge variety of types taking part.
LE JOG comes into Scotland through Gretna Green and heads up to Loch Lomond and over the Rest and Be Thankful before heading on to Killin.
It then crosses to Dalwhinnie, Glen Garry and finishes the day at Kyle of Lochalsh on Monday evening. The final leg takes the crews through Ullapool, Durness and Melvich before reaching the end of the road at John o’ Groats on Tuesday morning.
This year marks the 25th anniversary of the LE JOG rally and 87 teams are entered in everything from a Volkswagen Golf GTI to a pre-war Bentley 4.5-litre.
Keep an eye out for the Scots entrants that include Sue Shoosmith in a Dodge Senior Six, Stewart Christie in his MGB GT and Mike Cochrane in the BMW 323i.
Saturday also sees rallying action when the Boontree Birl gets under way along the roads of Angus. This navigational rally is run by the 750 Motor Club Scotland, so it relies on map reading skills as much as driver skill.
There’s two-wheeled action on Sunday as the Dunfermline and District Motorcycle Club runs its Open to Scotland trial at Crieff Hydro.
