GMC-MOTORSPORT had not planned to compete in this event but as all the gremlins had been rectified since the B52 stages at Edzell and the car was running fine we decided to post our entry.

Our entry was accepted and we began the plan of attack for this BBC1 televised event run and organised by the Royal Scottish Automobile Club. Our plan was to set an early lead in our class and then concentrate on working our way up the leaderboard for a more respectable overall position.

We had hoped for a dry day to try and match if not beat some of the more powerful 4 wheel drive machinery out there but at 5am the rain was torrential.

Strangely enough even at Knockhill, which has a reputation of snow in July, we were surprised to see the sun break through the clouds as stage 1 started.

Our tyre choice was undecided with the track drying out so we opted for super soft Yokohama’s on the front with Khumo wet weather tyres on the rear.

The first few stages were of mixed fortunes with the back end drifting away from us on two occasions,

One of the rough sections at the top of the track had a tarmac man made jump which looked ominous but on approach we knew we could take it flat out in 4^th gear enabling us to jump in excess of 3feet in the air, landing perfectly on all four wheels. The engine and the car were peforming 1^st class.

Stages 3 and 4 were in the same direction but this time utilising the rally cross section in the middle of the circuit, the rough rally cross sections were so slippy due to the fine gravel laid on it to such an extent every time Gerry gave the car more throttle the car just understeered then oversteered. A perfect run up till this point saw us sitting 1^st in class and 22^nd overall.

We knew that if we continued the rally the way we were going then the class win would be ours, so we tried to gain more positions overall. Stages 5 and 6 was the 1^st run on the track in the opposite direction giving us plenty of tight chicanes and hairpins with a merge and split junction there was up to 10 cars on the track at any one point. This brought with it some very close racing even catching a Ford Escort Cosworth and although it was on the tight twisty section we managed to hit his rear (Under Braking I think Gerry told me to say!) Soon, very soon after easing him out of our way we went on to complete the stage in very respectable times.

Stages 7 and 8 was the same direction as stages 5 and 6 but using the rally cross section and no moments or mishaps we completed these pair of stages to take the class win and 15^th overall. If we had entered in the 1600cc class with our Bowyer Developments 1400cc engine we would have won the class in that section too.

GMC-MOTORSPORT would like to thank the organising car club and all the timekeepers and marshals for a fabulous day out.

WE will be back within two weeks to inform everybody of our latest car upgrades and our remaining diary for this year and also what we are contemplating for next season.