2022 RSM Hire Ltd. Scottish Single Venue Rally Championship Report
The final round of the 2022 Scottish Single Venue Rally Championship – the Kingdom Stages run by GMSC, would be the decider for both the Drivers and the Co-Drivers titles.
The event on 05/11/22 held at Crail attracted a very good quality entry and certainly presented the competitors with very challenging conditions, slippy tarmac, strong winds and cold temperatures. There were lots of casualties after the first 2 stages for various reasons and the airfield looked like a very busy car park, meaning that the recovery crews were very busy. Finlay Retson was making an outing in a Fiesta Rally 2 and setting some very impressive times amongst many established crews in similar cars. Alan Kirkaldy (pic below courtesy of John Crisp Photography) was competing in his first rally for a year in his Fiesta R5 and was leading the event until electronic gremlins caused the engine to cut out, he recovered well to eventually finish 4th. Barry Groundwater was revelling in the wet conditions and Andrew Kirkaldy was setting very impressive times in a 2 wheel drive car, as was Des Campbell in his giant killing Peugeot.
The Junior Rally had a very healthy entry of 15 cars and were setting some very respectable stage times often on par with some of the senior drivers, all of the cars managed to complete all of their stages.
Next years Junior 1000 Championship looks like they will have a very healthy number of competitors.
2022 Kingdom Stages Rally results
1st Overall – Finlay Retson / Rhys Stoneman
2nd “ – Barry Groundwater / Martin Forrest
3rd “ – Andrew Kirkaldy / Peter Carstairs
SSVRC
Going into the last round 2 drivers – Des Campbell and Andrew Blackwood and 2
co-drivers Craig Forsyth and Richard Stewart stood a chance of winning the title after a whole season of rallying. Andrew Blackwood had car issues early on, lost 2 minutes and his chance of the title, while Des went onto finish a magnificent 6th overall and lift the title.
We are absolutely delighted at the response we have had in the first year of the Championship with 62 registered competitors and we plan to continue for 2023 with slight amendments from this year. I’d personally like to thank everyone for their support and look forward to working with you next year.
2022 RSM Scottish Single Venue Rally Championship Final Results
1st Overall – Driver – Des Campbell Co-Driver – Craig Forsyth
2nd Overall – Driver – Andrew Blackwood Co-Driver -Richard Stewart
3rd Overall – Driver – Dave McIntyre Co-Driver – Alison Horne
(pic above courtesy of Colin Smith)
Junior Award Driver – Andrew Blackwood Co-Driver – Cameron Dunn
Novice Award Driver – Cameron Williamson Co-Driver – Fraser McCurdie
Highest placed GMSC Crew – Colin Blake / Pauline Blake
