Snowman Rally 2009 Titch In A Ditch

[tm4tj]

Plenty snow falling in the Highlands just now. Should make for an interesting rally on Saturday. Three inches of snow has fallen in the City this morning in a couple of hours and more to come.

Snowman

Edited February 16, 2009 by themann4thejob

[Jay_7]

Looks like it'll be a good one - good to see that the recession hasn't hit hard yet going from (what I think could be) a record number of entries into the rally. You taking in any stages TM4TJ?

[tm4tj]

Might do 1, 3, 5.

Undecided, depends on the weather, might end up doing 2, 4 and a bit of 5, but not a lot of time between 4 & 5.

Looking forward to it, always a bit of fun when the rear wheeled cars come along.

David Bogie was mighty rapid last year and would have walked it but for problems.

Stage 1:- Meall Mor, first car 09:15------------near Craggie, Moy. 7.58miles.

Stage 2:- Millbuie, first car 10:35---------------near Killen, Black Isle. 8.95miles.

Stage 3:- Torrachility, first car 12:25----------past Contin 12.98miles.

Stage 4:- Corrimony, first car 14:41-----------near Shenval, Glenurquhart 8.71miles.

Stage 5:- Glenurquhart first car 14:59---------near Balnain, Glenurquhart. 5.18miles.

[Jay_7]

Might do 1, 3, 5.

Undecided, depends on the weather, might end up doing 2, 4 and a bit of 5, but not a lot of time between 4 & 5.

Looking forward to it, always a bit of fun when the rear wheeled cars come along.

David Bogie was mighty rapid last year and would have walked it but for problems.

Stage 1:- Meall Mor, first car 09:15------------near Craggie, Moy. 7.58miles.

Stage 2:- Millbuie, first car 10:35---------------near Killen, Black Isle. 8.95miles.

Stage 3:- Torrachility, first car 12:25----------past Contin 12.98miles.

Stage 4:- Corrimony, first car 14:41-----------near Shenval, Glenurquhart 8.71miles.

Stage 5:- Glenurquhart first car 14:59---------near Balnain, Glenurquhart. 5.18miles.

I'll be going to Meall Mor (first time there) and Corrimony (I know a cracking spot where there's a half mile straight coming down a hill going into a square right. A lot of cars mess up there, especially the RWD cars!

[Charles Bannerman]

Apart from the rally itself, I find the Sideshow quite revealing in a very different way. If you look on the distributor road on Rally Day you simply cannot fail to be entertained by various high revving acne-ridden little gnomes in Burberry baseball caps, peering over the dashboards of beaten up old Vauxhall Novas, most of them with holes punched in their exausts to produce even louder p?nis substitutes.

Edited February 12, 2009 by Charles Bannerman

[Johnboy]

Apart from the rally itself, I find the Sideshow quite revealing in a very different way. If you look on the distributor road on Rally Day you simply cannot fail to be entertained by various high revving acne-ridden little gnomes in Burberry baseball caps, peering over the dashboards of beaten up old Vauxhall Novas, most of them with holes punched in their exausts to produce even louder p?nis substitutes.

Aren't we being just a tad cynical here Charles...?

[CaleyD]

Keep up Charles, it's Citroen Saxos these days

[Tug]

Keep up Charles, it's Citroen Saxos these days

yeah but the funny ones to watch are the little rich kids who take mummy and daddys impreza/evo out for the day because they think it makes them look cool and then they are too scared to go over 25 mph because they might crash

[tm4tj]

Fekkin killjoys..................................whatever.

Live and let live, thats what I say.

Looks like I will make stage 2 & 3 as stage one may be difficult to get near due to limited parking and snow.

It's difficult to do more than two stages unless you are participating.

Stage 5 canceled.

No spectators at stages 1 & 4 please, official line, and polis will be in attendance.

Safety issues at roadsides

Edited February 13, 2009 by themann4thejob

[Jay_7]

Spectator car parks are officially closed at SS1 & SS4 due to the amount of snow but if you are able to access the stage then you are welcome to do so - But be aware there is a lot of snow at the sides of the track making moving about hazardous.

SS5 is cancelled as the exit from the stage is not safe.

[Caley]

Looks like Millbuie for tomorrow then. If memory serves me right, are there a couple of hairpins in quick succession there, fairly close to the spectator car park? If not, any tips for a good vantage point?

[Heilandee]

Could they no just give everyone a PS3 with Sega Rally and dae it in the big lounge at the Thistle hotel?

[Caley]

That'll be my last Snowman ever. Car parking shambles on stage 2 will have put a lot of people off going again I'm sure.

Whose bright idea was it to marshall all the two-wheel drive cars to the bottom of a sloping, snow-covered field? 3 hours stuck in a car waiting for a tractor tow is not my idea of a fun day out with the kids. Never again.

[tm4tj]

Not sure what you expected to happen caley.

I also was parked in the field, fairly near the top, but still required assistance to get towed out. Same happened two or three years ago at the same stage when there was lots of snow. I arrived back at my car around 2:00 and was on the road within ten minutes. Thats the beauty of playing in the snow. Plenty of incidents yesterday.

Have to say that the winner was really flying when he passed us, easily the fastest we saw passing us on stage two.

Well done to big Norman in his skoda. 76th overall in his first rally........wooohooooo.

Snowman results.

[Johnboy]

Well done to big Norman in his skoda. 76th overall in his first rally........wooohooooo.

Nothing wrong with Skodas matey...

76th isn't bad for a first rally...

How many entrants were there?

[tm4tj]

134

83 finished the course.

[Caley]

Not sure what you expected to happen caley.

I certainly didn't expect to be parking at the bottom of a snow-covered slope that's for sure. Marshalls were putting cars down there knowing full well they would get stuck.

More could have been done to prevent this from happening. The tractor that pulled us out had a snow plough attachment on the front, so some snow could have been cleared to make a parking area. The cars didn't have to be put to the bottom of the slope, there was plenty of room in the field level with the entrance. Straw could have been put down. A good few hundred/thousand quid was made in parking charges. I think the people paying deserved better than they got.

Fine if you weren't inconvenienced. I had 2 bored and starving kids with me. There was a pregnant lady beside me with a child. I'm sure plenty others had plans that had to be cancelled.

I've been to a lot of Snowmans (Snowmen?) in the last 20 years and I've never seen such a shambles as this. Put me right off.

[Jay_7]

Not sure what you expected to happen caley.

I certainly didn't expect to be parking at the bottom of a snow-covered slope that's for sure. Marshalls were putting cars down there knowing full well they would get stuck.

More could have been done to prevent this from happening. The tractor that pulled us out had a snow plough attachment on the front, so some snow could have been cleared to make a parking area. The cars didn't have to be put to the bottom of the slope, there was plenty of room in the field level with the entrance. Straw could have been put down. A good few hundred/thousand quid was made in parking charges. I think the people paying deserved better than they got.

Fine if you weren't inconvenienced. I had 2 bored and starving kids with me. There was a pregnant lady beside me with a child. I'm sure plenty others had plans that had to be cancelled.

I've been to a lot of Snowmans (Snowmen?) in the last 20 years and I've never seen such a shambles as this. Put me right off.

Don't be ridiculous. Even if straw had been put down, the wet nature of the field meant that anything that wasn't 4WD would not have got out of that field. The only way it could have been improved was to either have more tow vehicles available or use a field with a gate at the bottom (you'd have probably got stuck there too). The staggeringly vast number of idiots who were putting their foot down in vein attempts to move meant that even the 4WD vehicles were starting to struggle. If you'd waited longer on the stage you'd have only had to wait 20mins tops like I did

Anyway...

Got a great picture of Tich McCooey stuck in a ditch just before the popular chicane at the end of SS2:

A big well done to the spectators and marshalls who damn near had to lift him out!

Edited February 15, 2009 by Jay_7

[tm4tj]

Great pic 7.

Was this just before the 90% left hander before the straight that led to the chicane at the end of the stage? I suspect it is this section going by the arrow direction of the impending corner.

The reason I ask this, you may ask, was that we were spectating at the other end of the straight going up the incline that led to Tichy ending up in the ditch/verge. If it is the very same piece of action, then Tichy slid off the camber on the road at the bottom of the straight as he passed us, and to the delight of all the spectators there, he proceeded to run the car the full length of the straight , around 350 metres, completely rutted in the ditch, unable to get back onto the centre of the road and only stopped at the top because he was about twenty yards from the gate which would have blocked him completely. Good effort by Tich and good entertainment.

A lot of the cars had difficulty on this section as they booted it coming out of the Z bend, unfortunately most were caught out by the camber causing them to fishtail up the brae. That is apart from the Metro 6R4 of the winner who absolutely rocketed away, by far the quickest car on the stage...........and Tich who couldn't quite keep the car out of the ditch. Got some good shots on the video through my wee pocket camera, unfortunately when the Nova came along, I thought he was going too slow, and switched off..................little did I or Tich realise what was about to happen. The Puma had an angry Escort Cossie right on his erse as they passed us, horns and lights flashing, and another good bit of action was the Mk2 Escort hunting down the posh Evo, really closing him down as they slid past us.

As for the parking...........it's just your Donald Duck I'm afraid. I waited till virtually all the cars had been through the stage and got out no problem, five mins max.

Not sure if the organisers can be blamed for the pregnancy...........

Hope everyone got home safely. :thumb04:

[Jay_7]

That's exactly where I caught the picture. I think he kept going in the ditch hoping to get a lucky bounce out of it but it wasn't to be. Got a picture of the Escort Cossie chasing the Puma - He wasn't happy!!

A lot of the better pictures I took are already on my Flickr account (link in my Sig) - haven't had a chance to add the rest yet.

Duncan McGregor overcooked the square left a bit and needed to do a 360 with a bit of help from the spectators to go in the right direction again then he did exactly the same on the chicane before the end I was told. Not sure who it was that knocked the tree down on the chicane either, but I wish I'd been there to see it!