BRC Stars of the Future 2005
  Round
3 - Scottish Rally - 11th June
Cool Head Brings Victory No.2 For BRC Stars !
Report by Gavin Bristow
Round 3 of the BRC Stars of the Future championship took Mat Brennan and me to Dumfries and the Scottish Rally. The event
renowned for its rough rocky surface would be tough on the car and especially tyres. After the Pirelli we needed to get
points on the score board so a controlled drive was the order of the day.
 The
fact that we had made it to the event at all was an achievement in itself following a mammoth effort by the INTERCEPTOR
Racing team to get the car turned round and looking respectable within 3 weeks following the roll on the Pirelli. Work
carried out included complete suspension and transmission rebuild, lucky no faults found! 2 New doors, repair of front
bumper, wings and rear quarter panels, complete new sill and a new roof skin!! Top effort all completed from home and a
credit to the enthusiastic and resourceful team that is INTERCEPTOR Racing!
The first challenge of the day blistering hot day was the 18.5 miles of the Glentrool forest a big test for man and
machine as no testing time was available to ensure the car was ready to rally and this would be the longest stage we have
competed on to date! The stages was dusty and super rough with many of the top BRC competitors commenting on how hard the
stages were on the cars and picking up lots of punctures to boot. With this in mind and the need for us to 
finish we made a conscious decision at the start of the rally to back off of our usual pace and drive for a finish, another
DNF here and our championship would be as good as over, our tactics were to push enough to stay with the front runners but
not to take any risks.
This time our luck was in and the tactics worked, we managed to survive a damaged wheel, cut tyres, snatched brake lines
and fractured suspension joints but most importantly didn’t suffer any punctures by not taking risks. As all our other
competitors push to try and stay with us or increase there advantage over our steady relentless pace they fell by the
wayside leaving us to take the sweetest of victories finishing 1st 1400 and 3rd overall.
This excellent result puts our BRC stars of the Future championship bid back on track as we head to Jim Clarke Memorial
rally on the fast tarmac roads around Duns on the Scottish boarders. This will be the teams first time competing on tarmac
so the learning curve will be steep but the team are determined to pile the pressure on their competitors and push for
victory no.3
Gavin Bristow |
