McLachlan Rallying

History

From an early age I was always mad on cars but as none of my family shared my interest, I had no idea how to get into motorsport and so stuck with watching it on TV. That was until I went to Salford University and joined the Motor Club. Salford was part of the Northern Universities Motor Club who ran various championships between Universities in the North of England. There was a Scatter Championship, Road Rally Championship, and a Specials Championship, all contributing towards an overall total.

The Scatter championship was most hotly contested and so I got myelf a navigators seat for one of the first events in the year. We did quite well finishing 9th out of 29 starters, and I was hoping to get out and do some more, but unfortunately the driver had his eyes set on a rather attractive female navigator and I was therefore left by the wayside...

I acquired myself a car, a VW Beetle which turned out to be rotten so I desperately swapped it for a Ford Cortina 1.6. Not the normal rally weapon of choice but it was reliable and proved more than a match for all other student machinery (Lancia HF Turbo, Astra GTEs, Golf GTIs, Peugeot SRIs) in the North of England. I teamed up with friend Eddie Clough and we made an immediate impression challenging the leaders straight away. I went on to win the Scatter Championship in 92/93, and the Scatter, Specials, Road Rally, and Overall Championship in 93/94.

On getting a job, an Escort Mk2 was 1st on the shopping list for my first dedicated rally car, and those days there were affordable! I spent some time in 96, 97, and 98 doing first the ANCC, and then some of the London Counties rounds but the car never proved that reliable, and while when on form we could win events outright, the car let us down on more occasions. Gradually it became more prepared and reliable and we did our first stage rally in 1998. Whilst were faster than those with similar power, most cars in the 2.0 class had 50-100% the power. Eddie lost a bit of interest, and I did a couple more stage rallies with other navigators securing an excellent 3rd in class on my third event and a few more road rallies, but never in a championship.

Then along came the 205 challenge. The first time I could realistically afford to compete in the same car as everyone else. I persuaded brother Mat that it would be fun and we spent all our evenings, weekends, and some holiday time building a 205 Challenge rally car concentrating on reliability; all parts replaced or reconditioned in preperation for the 1st year of the challenge in 2002. It was a full entry of 60 cars making it the largest single make rally championship in the world!

Follow the links for the full event reports.

2002 Season - An excellent start at Twyford wood proved we were in the top few. The second event at Binbrook was very disappointing. In retrospect we think the distributor had failed at this point, not to be fixed until Feb 2003.

Swansea Bay - pacenotes and a true RAC Rally event. Fantastic taking the 2nd in class award. Sweet Lamb followed although it nearly didn't as Rich's wife Olivia was 1 week overdue with 2nd baby Beatrice. Good event all the same with 5th 205 overall and 3rd in class award.

Baby problems causes a late withdrawal from the Premier stages, but fortunately things have turned out alright by the grace of God. The last round at Grizedale wasn't our best effort with getting stuck in a ditch on the 1st stage, and then a punture that had to be changed on the final stage. Enough to get the 3rd in class championship award though - the main objective!

2003 Season - Sweden. What a way to start - read the report. A bit of extra prep and some valuable rolling road time set us up for 2003. Oakington was OK - 7th 205 and even beating a 1.9 car but we felt we could do better.

Binbrook was my test - I was quietly dreading it following the lack lustre performance in 02 and was well psyched up about it. 1st stage, fastest car of 45. What a feeling. The rest of the event was a disaster. Two spins and then two punctures sent us from the lead to mid field by the end of the day.

Newtown Mid Wales was fun, with 3rd Expert award at the end. Swansea Bay was ludicrously hot yet utterly brilliant. Sky TV camera in the car and a 3rd overall finish despite serious mechanic probs. Hi Mum.

We were off the pace on Sweet Lamb in the morning, but even with brake problems in the afternoon tried hard enough to recover to 7th 205. The Patriot stages was a disaster start to end with the 1st DNF for the car. We discussed whether or not to do Dalby, but we still had a statistical chance to actually win the challenge so couldn't not - bad decision...... that ended the car. OOPS