SSVRC Round 1 Knockhill – Results and Report
Round 1 Knockhill: Border Access Rally 2025
Welcome to this edition of SSVRC news, bringing you all the latest on the Glenrothes MSC supported, Blasting Magic sponsored Scottish Single Venue Rally Championship.
We are happy to announce co support for this seasons championship from McIntyre Masonry, JW Electrical (Fife), Motorwise rescue & recovery, Mercury Motorsport, Airtec, Y- MAC Engineering, Engine 710, Onestop and MAC GRP signs & graphics.
Knockhill once again hosted the 2025 season opener, the Border Access Knockhill stages, organised by Border Ecosse Car Club.Ten stages of some 40 miles over the Fife circuit were tackled by the crews. Weather and conditions are always a problem in February at Knockhill, making tyre choice difficult, especially with the mixed surface.
The event opens the Scottish Tarmack Rally Championship, Scottish Single Venue Rally Championship, Back to Roots Tarmack Championship, AS Performance North of England Tarmacadam Rally Championship, and the MG3 Rally Challenge for 2025.
In Class F, Steven Crockett and Kenny Anderson were seeded at 34 in the 1400 Peugeot 205. The pairs rally was sadly over after stage 1 as the 205 lost vital fluids.
Seeded at 35, last years SSVRC 1400 cc class winners James and Rebecca Wilson were once again in their venerable Mg ZR. The car spent a fair bit of the morning uncharacteristically pointing the wrong direction with numerous spins. Despite this they finished up the day a very creditable 30th overall to win the class in the championship.
Connor Black and Duncan Daun seeded 57 were back together in the unusual Mazda 323. The crew, desperate for more power on the long straights of the Knockhill circuit, finished 42nd overall and 2nd in the class.
The highly competitive Class E saw previous SSVRC winner Des Campbell pair up with Rhys Donaldson in the on song Peugeot 206. A class win seemed, and was inevitable as the crew finished another giant killing 8th overall.
Dave McIntyre, with unregistered Cammy Dunn in the C2 R2, chased all day ending up 2nd in class and just outside the top ten in 12th.
Colin Hay and Jess Jamieson had initially thought they may have to pull the entry at the last minute, due to some ECU problems in the Corsa. They too were finding conditions challenging on stage 1, with the track very slippy,resulting a full 360 pirouette on the first corner. A second stage off at Duffus dip resulted in the Corsa losing its bumper but the crew held it together to finish 31st overall.
Drew Barker and Shona Hale joined the fray in their Corsa, the pair had some misfortune, with a loss of brakes and a spin on the first stage. In Service they discovered a collapsed wheel bearing and a damaged hub ending their day.
Paul Murdoch in the Mk2 Escort alongside non Championship contender Nicola Wareham, After having an all new 1600 engine built for the Mk2 Escort over the winter he had a small engine fire in service after stage 1 which ended the days rallying after just one stage.
Liam Harvey and Chris Wareham in their usual 1600 cc Zetec Fiesta, seeded 47 they finished 47th, They had some mechanical issues throughout the rally including braking two driveshafts.
The beautiful two door Hillman Avenger Gt of Kenny Moore, with Fiona Moir in the silly seat always looked to be going well. They put in a good performance finishing 49th overall.
In Class D, Father and son crew Graeme and Jim Rintoul seeded at 22 in the Fiesta ST, the pair having some issues with an intermittent misfire meaning the Fiesta was, according to Graeme; “unable to pull the skin off a rice pudding.” They did however finish just inside the top 20 in 19th overall.
Wattie Warwick from Mull and Darrell Clark in their Peugeot 206 GTI finished the rally 33rd.
Unfortunately, due to the lack of registered competitors in this class, the crews would be competing for restricted championship points in this event.
Class C was the battle of the Mk2 Escorts, as Alister Crawford and navigator Greg Halfpenny were joined in another Mk2 by Kenneth Dalgliesh and Andrew Side fighting for SSVRC class honours. Crawford/ Halfpenny came out on top finishing one class place in front.
Imprezas were still the weapon of choice in Class B however, Joe McKeand with navigator Charlotte McDowell were seeded at 9 and finished the rally 7th overall.
Owen Patterson once again joined by Scott Sloan in their Subaru seeded at 11. The pair were going well until stage 7 when retirement struck. Not the start to the season, last year’s Junior award driver was looking forward to!
Billy McLelland and Chris Robertson, seeded at 14th took their Impreza to a great 4th overall .
Bobby MacDonald and navigator Martin McCabe had a bit of a time in their Subaru. Bobby reported; “ not the best of days in the office, an off on stage 2 onto the grass, then bogged down costing us well over 4 minutes to eventually get back onto the stage but we managed to get to the Finish 43 rd overall.
Nick Stamper was the only championship entrant in class A, joined by Glen Mercer,Nick was hoping to get a chance to get used to the R5, first time out in the Citroen DS3 rather than GC8 Impreza he is more used to.
The first of our registered competitors, Nick finding things difficult in the unfamiliar left hand drive cockpit of the R5 Citroën, Nick had a slight altercation with the stage furniture .The result was a stage one time of 6 minutes 40 seconds and pristine DS3 looking a bit worse for wear. Unfortunately a retirement was on the cards.
The next round of the SSVRC is the Albar Trophy Rally, at Kames circuit in East Ayrshire on Sunday 11th of May. We look forward to bringing you news of all the action.
