The imposing statue of Robert the Bruce on the Esplanade of Stirling Castle could have been forgiven for shaking his head in wonderment and disbelief. High above his head fireworks exploded and around him thousands of rally fans celebrated the finish of the inaugural RallyScotland.
Despite almost 72 hours of incessant, torrential rain, the final round of the Intercontinental Rally Championship — the biggest motorsport event to be held in Scotland for more than 20 years — accelerated the country back on to the motorsport world stage.
But hours after IRC champ Kris Meeke celebrated his fifth win of the season, the 30-year-old from Dungannon learned that scrutineers had placed his Peugeot 207 S2000 under investigation for a possible technical infringement.
Though the result of the TW Steel-backed rally was made ‘final’, the provision remains that Meeke could be stripped of his win. Such action though would not deny him the championship which he clinched in the previous round in SanRemo.
The concern surrounds the car’s front cross member, which is rumoured to be under weight. The part will now be examined by the world motorsport body, the FIA in Paris, before an official decision is made in a couple of weeks.
Meeke, who dedicated his victory to his mentor, former world rally champ Colin McRae, had earlier found himself being congratulated on his victory by Alister McRae and Darlington’s Guy Wilks in the mud high above Loch Ard.
The three-day event had been poised for a nailbiting conclusion as Meeke entered the final stage defending a slender 20.7sec advantage over Wilks’ Skoda. But just as the intensity and drama grew, seven miles into the final 22-mile stage Wilks hurtled round a corner to be confronted by the stationary Proton S2000 of McRae.
The Lanark driver’s bright yellow car, hazard lights piercing through the falling gloom, signalled the premature end of the stage and the TW Steel-backed RallyScotland. As first Wilks, then Meeke, parked up behind McRae, out of sight Dumfries’s David Bogie, the 2009 Scottish champ had spectacularly rolled his Mitsubishi.
The car came to a halt straddling the forest track with a cliff face on one side and a 100-foot drop on the other. As a result, none of the following cars could squeeze past and the stage was halted meaning the positions at the start of the stage became final.
Later as Meeke, Wilks and third-placed McRae celebrated on the podium in the torrential rain at Stirling Castle, the man behind the success of the event, Clerk of the Course Iain Campbell, quietly contented himself with a job well done.
“I think the event is a credit to the army of volunteers and marshals who have been out in all weathers to ensure the pre-event test, the recce and the event itself has run faultlessly,” Campbell, a quiet Invernessian, explained. “They, the thousands of spectators and especially the drivers, have all come back in smiling. We couldn’t ask for more.”
JM