MOFFETT PROVES TO BE UNSTOPPABLE
New M-sport Fiesta guided to win on returning Scottish rally.
Five years after the last closed road Jim Clark Rally, the 2019 event was adjudged a complete success even with the organisers having to overcome a number of weatherrelated problems.
Josh Moffett and Andy Hayes took victory – aboard M-sport’s new-spec Ford Fiesta R5 ahead of potentially using it next season – with David Bogie and Kevin Rae finishing second and Dale Robertson and Stuart Loudon third.
“It’s completely different to the current R5, engine, suspension and brakes all feel different,” said Moffett.
A cautious run on the opening wet and slippery Abbey St Bathans stage on Friday put him tied second on time with Robertson, who was using a hired Fiesta R5, as the pair trailed Bogie. There was nothing cautious about Bogie’s approach in his Ford Escort Mk2. Quickest by five seconds was incredible considering he was pushing well over 300bhp through two rear wheels in conditions that would have tested a downhill skier.
Although water levels in the ford at Langton were higher than usual, it was passable but water running across the road on the downhill approach in the braking area prompted the Motorsport UK safety delegate and the clerk of the course to cancel both Friday runs on the grounds of safety. Fortunately, conditions improved overnight to permit the stage to be run on Saturday.
Come daylight on Saturday, Moffett’s four-wheel-drive machine eased into a lead which it would hold all the way to the finish. But if the rest of the fourwheel-drive brigade thought they would follow suit, Bogie had other ideas.
A frosty first stage on Saturday morning and the second run through Abbey added a little ice to the surface and it was the Fiesta R5 of Alan Kirkaldy that set fastest time, two seconds quicker than Moffett with Bogie less than half a second behind the Irishman. Not so fortunate was John Indri, the Mitsubishi Mirage taking a tumble after hitting standing water and shooting across a field.
Bogie dropped behind overall at the first visit to Langton. “I always knew the Langton test would be difficult for me,” said Bogie. “It’s narrow, twisty, muddy and covered in leaves.”
Seventh quickest was the result but even so he dropped just over five seconds to Moffett’s fastest time.
On the third and final visit to
Abbey, Hugh Hunter hit the top of the timesheets in his Ford Focus RS WRC. The rising sun had begun to dry out the surface a little as Moffett was only a second ahead of Bogie.
The final loop featured two runs at Blackadder and Fogo. Bogie lost out on the first run through Blackadder, a full 21s slower than the Moffett and that dropped him from second to fourth overall. Worse befell Kirkaldy as he started the stage in sixth and ended it midway through after clattering a chicane bale and a dyke.
Bogie bounced back on the first Fogo test, beating Hunter and Robertson, which left a final rerun through those same two stages, only they were very different this time. Mud had been dragged across the road and it was now fully dark before a shower of sleet blew through the landscape.
Robertson rose to the challenge, second quickest behind Moffett through Blackadder, but more crucially taking 12s out of Hunter, to move back into the runner-up position.
Prior to the final run through Fogo, which by this time had been transformed into an evil skating rink, second to fourth were covered by just over four seconds.
Bogie stunned everyone with a fastest time ahead of Moffett. Hunter fought back too, but not enough, losing out to Robertson by less than three seconds.
There were no end of exceptional results with Ross Hunter scoring a superb fifth overall, first time in a Fiesta R5, less than 10s behind his more experienced namesake. Michael Binnie’s pace was quite remarkable too in the Mitsubishi Lancer E9 surviving a “wee straight-on” in the penultimate stage. Andy Fenwick was seventh and Steve Simpson was eighth, both in Fiesta R5s. James Ford was ninth in his Escort Mk2 just ahead of Gordon Morrison, who might just have finished higher up had it not been for an excursion up a banking exiting the ford at Langton.
His last-minute lunge displaced the Peugeot 206 of Des Campbell, which had delighted and enthralled spectators on its epic drive.
At the finish, a happy Moffett said: “We don’t have many rallies this late in the season back home, so the roads are usually a bit cleaner. Conditions were very tricky and very inconsistent, but this was a good rally.”