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Lee Holland Memorial Stages winner Alan Kirkaldy has bought a Ford Fiesta R5, and hopes to make his debut in the car on the Motorsport News Circuit Rally Championsh­ip’s Knockhill Rally in December.

Kirkaldy has regularly competed in a Millington-powered Ford Escort Mk2, but won the Lee Holland – also a round of the MN series – after being loaned an R5 car by Peter Smith.

“My dad was going to buy a Ferrari but he decided he’d never drive it and it would just sit in the garage,” said Kirkaldy. “We had a look for an R5 and got one, it’s Evo2, it’s chassis number 100 which was on display at the Autosport show. We saw it advertised in Milan. It was quite cheap but it needed a bit of tidying up.”

Kirkaldy is in the process of deciding on events to compete in next year, but is hoping the Jim Clark Rally – which is waiting for a rule change on closed-road events from the Scottish government – will return.

“I’m hoping the Jim Clark comes back because, as much as I enjoy single-venues, I really enjoy proper closed-road events,” he said. “When I did the Pokerstars [Isle of Man] last year it shows how much of a team effort you need to win.

“I can’t commit to a championsh­ip due to work. I want to do Knockhill to get back into it as it’s been a while since I’ve been in one of them [an R5]. Then we’ll decide about next year.”

Entries are still open for the event. Although it was set to be a two-day rally, it has been reduced to one to keep costs down for competitor­s.

 ??  ?? Lee Holland Memorial Stages win on his R5 debut – Kirkaldy
Lee Holland Memorial Stages win on his R5 debut – Kirkaldy

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