Cobble Shop Scottish Tarmac Rally Championship
It has been an eventful and challenging 12 months for brothers Willie and Steven Beattie in their first year out as rally driver and co-driver.
It quickly became clear the car and crew have the potential to be competitive in their class but, according to the pair, they ‘still have lots of experience to gain’.
The year has had its ups and downs, with a fair share of good, bad and ugly. Not getting to finish their local event, Mach1, in Machrihanish, while leading the class by a comfortable margin, having to retire due to an electrical master switch failure, was a disappointment but, unfortunately, these things happen. Rolling the car at the challenging Tyneside stages was another nightmare but, these hiccups aside, the lads were happy to finish second in class in the Scottish Tarmac Rally Championship.
After the roll in Tyneside, which left the D A MacDonald Escort looking a little sorry for itself and some way from being able to compete, the boys needed to collect the requisite number of points to secure a podium overall and this involved a fairly swift deal with Willie senior and they are indebted to their dad for nervously lending them his car for Leuchars to secure the championship position. Both remarked what an experience it was to drive his Escort.
After taking it easy for four stages, they started to get a good feel for the car and picked up the pace to finish third in class and 16th o/a.
The Beattie boys said: ‘The car had so much more to give but we didn’t want to push our luck being the first outing in a different car. We got it back in one piece thankfully.’
Overall it has been a great year for them and they would like to say a massive thanks to Donald and Irene and DA MacDonald Contractors for the sponsorship over the past two years and look forward to the 2019 championship. The car is due some tender loving care and will be back out again for next year’s stages.