RALLYING
Brian Lyall maintained his record-breaking domination of the domestic rallying scene by winning the McRae Forest Stages Rally in Galashiels. Lyall's seventh straight victory in the series confirmed his maiden Scottish Rally Champion title without having to contest the final round.
The Aberdeen car executive threw down the gauntlet right from the start by scorching through the opening stage in his all-conquering Subaru Impreza. Having established a comfortable 11-second lead over Ayr's Neale Dougan, winner of the Borders event for the previous two years, Lyall took his foot off the gas and waited to see what the rest of the field could do.
''Surprisingly they never came back to me at all. In the end we had a pleasant drive in the sun with the biggest problem being the dust,'' said Lyall who set fastest times on all six stages in conditions more akin to the Greek Acropolis Rally than a counter in the Scottish.
The thick, choking dust could easily have ruined his cruise to the title. ''We overshot the hairpin on the opening stage purely because we couldn't see it,'' Lyall's co-driver John Bennie laughed. ''But we got away with it and it's great to have finally won the championship.''
Fifty-five seconds behind Lyall was the Impreza of former Scottish champ Murray Grierson (Dalbeattie) with Dougan third in his Ford Escort Cosworth. The event also saw a welcome return to form for Hamilton's Jon Burn. The 26-year-old, already with his sights firmly set on next year's championship, finally won the day-long battle of the leading Metro 6R4s with Jim Carty to pip the Elderslie man by just three seconds.
Results: 1, Brian Lyall/John Bennie (Aberdeen) Subaru Impreza 41mins 21secs; 2, Murray Grierson/Campbell Roy (Dalbeattie) Subaru Impreza 42.16; 3, Neale Dougan/Dougie Redpath (Ayr) Ford Escort Cosworth 42.31; 4, Jon Burn/Stan Quirk (Hamilton) MG Metro 6R4 43.19; 5, Jim Carty/Fred Bell (Elderslie) Metro 6R4 43.22; 6, Duncan Jaffray/Andy McGowan (Banchory) Ford Escort Cosworth 43.50; 7, Alan Dickson/Graham Bissett (Glasgow) Ford Escort Cosworth 44.19; 8, Sandy Dalgarno/Martin Forrest (Dyce) Ford Escort Cosworth 44.31; 9, Andrew Wood/Douglas Wood (Melrose) Vauxhall Astra GTE 44.37; 10. Scott Calderwood/Ally Campbell (Helensburgh) Peugeot 205 45.18.
Championship standings (After 7 of 8 rounds): 1. Lyall, 210pts; 2. Dalgarno, 184; 3. Carty, 164; 4. Nicoll and Dougan, 152; 6. Dickson, 145; 7. Jaffray, 141.
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