| It's snow bother |
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| Written by Paul Ward | |
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East Kilbride junior driver Steven Smith had much to celebrate after getting his 2010 Scottish rally championship season off to a great start at the appropriately named Snowman rally in Inverness last weekend. Steven finished first between the Peugeot 205 drivers, came second in class three and finished in 41st place overall at the Highland event. He had experienced Stewarton co-driver Russell Fair sitting alongside him and the pair had a very composed drive in extremely difficult conditions. The forest stages were covered in heavy snow or thick ice making driving very tricky and treacherous. Having listened to weather reports for the area in preparation for the event the pair located a set of old Colway remould tyres that Steven’s father had used on the Snowman rally 10 years ago. After a smooth and steady drive on stage one despite a short overshoot on an icy right hand junction and a further half spin on stage two, the team were pleasantly surprised to discover on arrival at the first service that they were lying third in class and had set the 35th fastest time through the snow-covered second stage. Stage three was a difficult stage with intermittent ice patches as well as some areas of deep snow and rough gravel. This stage, however, proved to be the highlight of the rally, as Steven overtook an Evo 6 on the inside of a tight hairpin, much to the amusement of the spectators. The fourth stage of the rally was unfortunately cancelled due to an accident and this meant the team incurred a notional time for this stage and were redirected to the final 5.81 mile test. This last stage proved crucial, and with a storming charge through the snow-covered tracks the Peugeot driver recorded 25th fastest time overall allowing them to climb to second in class three. After the event the Kylemark backed driver spoke of his hopes for the rest of the tour: “The Snowman has been a great start to the season. “As the first round in the competitive Scottish championship and with the difficult icy conditions, it was always going to be an eventful rally so I am extremely pleased with my result today. “I was hoping to be one of the top three in my class, so finishing in second place and first 205 is an excellent start to the season. “With Russell’s experience, hopefully we can continue to build on this success in the second round next month which is also the first round of the Ecosse challenge.” The team’s next event will be the Jedburgh-based Brick & Steel Border Countries Rally on Saturday March 20. To follow the team’s progress in the championship, visit the website www.stevensmithrallying.co.uk. |
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