SUMMER STAGES 2015

The NessRallySport team of Don Murray and Tom Purvin were back in action at the weekend at the Summer Stages Rally at Crail Airfield. Having enjoyed their time together at the Ingliston event earlier this year the team decided to get back into action at this venue, which has always been a favourite of Don's despite not always yielding favourable results, as previous event reports show!

The day was cold and overcast, but remained dry throughout, though the track was cold and slippery with a very unpredicatable surface. By Don's own admission he was tentative on the first two stages, but given that this was only the second outing in the car he was happy to be comfortably inside the top 40.

However the crew were to encounter a problem on stage 4, when an errant tyre in the middle of a chicane brought them to a complete halt, before deciding to gently nudge the tyre out of the way with the bumper, ensuring that it didn't become lodged under the car and do some damage. However that was to cost over 30 seconds and in such a fast paced event that dropped them down the field.

In an attempt to make up time later in the day more time was lost with an over-exuberant entrance to a chicane on cold tyres seeing the crew hit a tyre barrier head on, at low speed. Whilst causing no damage it did however require a 3 point turn to get going, with more lost time. Later crews came to grief at this same chicane, with one crew ending up rolling the car in the same spot.

A final push on the last stage resulted in a full spin early on in the stage costing yet more time, however the result showed another finish, albeit in a lowly 41st position. However, this was 10 places better than seeding, so the team left with smiles on their faces again, and tales of what might have been. To be fair rallying is a game of 'ifs, buts and maybes' and every crew leaves an event with their fair share of 'what could have been' stories.

The team hopes to be back out again at the Solway Coast Rally in August and in the meantime the usual thanks go to JDMotorsport for the use of the car, and Tim Finch of TFRallysport for on event support and car prep, as well as all our sponsors and supporters. Wouldn't happen without you!