Feeney’s first in the Mini is hard-earned
The final round of the 2017 Scottish Tarmack Rally Championship was a fraught affair with an endof-term feel to proceedings. With the title already won, Gareth White left his Peugeot 208 R2 in the garage and wheeled out a Peugeot 106 to finish 13th overall.
Meanwhile at the sharp end of the field, Nigel Feeney and Phil Sandham scored the win in their Mini John Cooper Works WRC, but not without incident. Feeney clipped a tyre, spun off and landed in a field, then stalled it. Similarly Lee and Cole Hastings had trouble on their way to second. Their Subaru Impreza completed the full seven stages without anti-lag operating.
The Paterson brothers had a bit of a fight too over third place. Ian smacked a bale and spun his Subaru on the first stage allowing Stuart to slip ahead, but thereafter Ian was faster over the next six stages to claim third overall.
Top seed Shaun Sinclair lost out on the first stage when he clouted a tyre marker, bent a bottom arm and broke a driveshaft. John Rintoul had a piston fail in his Ford Fiesta, Gordon Morrison broke a bottom balljoint in the Subaru and Taylor Gibb broke his Mitsubishi Lancer’s transfer box.
Michael Harbour won the 1600 class in his Citroen C2 and finished a superb seventh overall ahead of Gareth White, while Greg Inglis lost out when he missed a Split in his Citroen C2 and did an extra lap. Marcus Tinsley took the 1400 class in his Peugeot 205 Rallye.