Error gifts Tindall victory before Retson rebounds Kames Autumn and Albar Trophy

Organiser: East Ayrshire Car Club When: September 24/25 Where: Kames Motorsport Complex, East Ayreshire Stages: 16 Starters: 13

A rare mistake from Finlay Retson cost him the lead of the Kames Autumn Junior Rally at the halfway point and allowed Ewan Tindall to seize the initiative.

“I misheard a call at a junction,” explained Retson, “I thought I was going right when I should have gone left and went straight on! There was no damage but I lost time trying to get traction on the wet grass and reverse out.”

Retson lost 40 seconds in the incident and dropped to fifth before fighting back to snatch third place by five seconds from Harry Chalmers in his VW Up.

Prior to that point there was little between the Retson Citroen C1 and Tindall’s similar car, the pair squabbling over single seconds on each stage. Josh Hislop provided the Peugeot 107 sandwich on the Citroen podium finishing just seven seconds behind the winner.

It was business as usual for Retson on the Sunday ‘Albar Trophy’ event but the winner’s margin was a mere four seconds this time. Tindall scored the runner-up position ahead of Chalmers, despite constantly locking brakes on the morning stages.

Josh Hislop had again been on the pace but this time it was he who slipped up. He clipped a tyre barrier on the approach to the ‘Chicken Run’ which spun the Peugeot and flipped it over the barrier with two stages to go. Both crew members stepped out unhurt and the car was driven back into service.

The Senior events were rather poorly attended, but provided a win on Saturday for the Ford Focus of Michael Farmer and Lindsay Taylor’s Ford Fiesta ST on Sunday.

1 Ewan Tindall/ Paul Hudson (Citroen C1) 25m14s; 2 Josh Hislop/ Ellya Gold (Peugeot 107) +7s; 3 Finlay Retson/andrew Falconer (Citroen C1); 4 Harry Chalmers/ Steven Brown (VW Up); 5 Jude Macdonald/ Michael Cruickshank (Nissan Micra); 6 Lewis Haining/ Mark Mcculloch (Toyota Aygo); 7 Lewis Winder/ Mike Baird (Nissan Micra); 8 Cameron Russell/ Ian Mcrae (Nissan Micra); 9 Johnnie Mackay/ Gordon Reid (Nissan Micra); 10 Andrew Blackwood/ Gordon Winning (Nissan Micra).