Another successful Saltire rally raffle!

Thanks to everyone who bought a raffle ticket at the Saltire Classic rally. We raised a fantastic £290 which has been paid into our Just Giving account and will go to the Nystagmus Network. 

Thanks also to Diane for helping us run the raffle and to everyone who donated a prize including Motorsport Mugs, John Stone from Legend Fires, John Clark from Belmont Communications and Colin Wallace. 

Raffle prizes wanted please!

Hello!

The Saltire Rally Club have kindly invited us to attend their Classic rally again and we'll be having a raffle to raise funds for the Nystagmus Network.

We've got a few prizes already but we'd like some more. If anyone would like to help us by donating a prize please get in touch via rally2raise@gmail.com.

Thanks,

Rachel & Gary

Happy New Year!

Welcome to 2015! 

2014 was a quiet one for Rally2Raise, with no budget to contest any stage rallies the only outing for the Micra was running as car 0 on the Saltire Classic rally. We held a raffle at the event which raised over £270.

The Micra has now being sold and Rachel is saving up the pennies to hopefully make a return in something a bit quicker next year. 

In the meantime the Saltire Rally Club have kindly asked us to attend their Classic event again. Unfortunately we won't be able to do 0 car duties again but we'll be at the rally in some form and we're planning to have another raffle to raise funds for the Nystagmus Network.

We're pleased to say that by selling calendars over Christmas between them Aerial Aberdeen and Songasport managed to raise £170 for the Nystagmus Network. Hopefully we can add to this at the Saltire in March.

Rally2Raise team enjoy snowy Saltire

The Rally2Raise team of Rachel Clark and Gary Simpson headed to Perthshire last weekend to take part in the Edradour Saltire Classic rally. The organisers, the Saltire Rally Club, have supported Rally2Raise since 2012 and as part of the support they let the Rally2Raise rally car run as the course car on the event.

The rally started from the Birnam hotel on a cold and clear morning with a wide variety of cars lining up ready to tackle the route and tests which would take them up towards Pitlochry, across to Loch Tummel and then north towards Blair Atholl.

The opening test was in a forest just outside of Dunkeld. The team’s Nissan Micra struggled to get traction on the very slippery and steep track but the test was successfully negotiated.  A further nine tests took place in quick succession including one at the distillery of event sponsor Edradour which involved negotiating a course marked out by whisky barrels.

“The first few tests went well,” said Rachel. “Most were extremely slippery and, even though we’ve only got a 1300cc Micra, it was a struggle to find grip. Fortunately we didn’t suffer a repeat of last year where the exhaust manifold broke early on.”

After a lunch halt on the shore of Loch Tummel the Rally2Raise crew completed another test before the highlight of their event, a 12 mile section through a snowy Errochty forest. From there the rally headed back towards Dunkeld via Blair Atholl and the south side of Loch Tummel, taking in seven more tests before the finish.

“Errochty was fantastic, I’ve driven it on the McRae Stages rally but this was the first time I’ve seen it in the snow. The roads were pretty icy and it would’ve been easy to slide off but we completed the section with no problems. The remaining tests were fine and we made it back to the finish in one piece.”

After the rally a raffle was held in aid of “Funding the fuel for Flynny” which included prizes donated by Penny Street Boutique Lancaster, Motorsport Mugs, Colin Wallace, Martin Steele, Willie Greig, 2013 rally winners Noel Cochrane and Olly McCollum, Life Memories Photography and Songasport. A total of £270 was raised.

“Thanks to everyone who donated a prize and bought a raffle ticket, we were delighted with the amount raised. Thanks also to Colin Wallace and his team at the Saltire Rally Club for letting us run on a brilliant event, we had a great time.”

For more information on Rally2Raise please visit www.rally2raise.co.uk or www.facebook.com/rally2raise.

Rally2Raise team have successful Merrick Stages rally

The Rally2Raise team of Aberdeen’s Rachel Clark and Brampton’s Caroline Lodge enjoyed another successful event last weekend when they finished second in class on the GWF Energy Merrick Stages rally.

Heavy rain the day before the rally made the 9 miles of the opening Craignell stage extremely slippery with several of the top drivers having spins. There were no problems for Rachel in her E.Watson and Son, Pirelli, AW Motorsport and McPherson Document Solutions-supported Nissan Micra 1.3 though and she completed the stage fourth in class.

The Dallash stage was next and Rachel maintained her position with another good performance. Following a service halt the crews headed for a pair of stages in Glentrool forest including one that was 13 miles long. With a lot of long straights these stages didn’t suit the Micra which, with around 60bhp, was the lowest powered car in the event. However, Rachel extracted every bit of performance from the car to move up to second in class.

One more stage stood between Rachel and a great result but at 14 miles stage 5 was the longest of the event and it had already claimed several of the cars that were running ahead of the Micra. The crew and car emerged unscathed though and Rachel and Caroline made it to the event finish in Wigtown.

“The stages were absolutely awesome,” said Rachel. “The tracks were very slippery and the weather went from sun to torrential rain and back so conditions were extremely challenging. The little Micra struggled on the long straights, we definitely needed a lot more power there.”

“I tried as much as possible to keep the momentum up – when you slow down it takes a long time to build up speed again in a 1.3. This led to some interesting moments though including bouncing through a ditch at a hairpin in front of a group of spectators. After our gear linkage issues on the last event it was great to have a troublefree rally this time.”

“Thanks to the Marshall family for putting on a brilliant event, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Thanks also to E.Watson and Son, Pirelli, AW Motorsport and McPherson Document Solution for their support and to Clark Motorsport for trailering the car and servicing.”

For more information please visit www.rally2raise.co.uk or www.facebook.com/rally2raise.

Rally2Raise team to return to Merrick Stages rally

The all-female Rally2Raise team will head to Wigtown next weekend to contest the GWF Energy Merrick Stages rally for a second time.

Driver Rachel Clark, from Aberdeen, competed on the event last year and successfully finished after over 40 miles of tough forest stages. This year she will be partnered by Brampton’s Caroline Lodge in the navigator’s seat. The pairing have already completed two events this season with great results on the Scottish rally in Dumfries and the Speyside Stages in Elgin. They will use their usual Nissan Micra 1300 which is supported by E.Watson and Son, Pirelli, AW Motorsport and McPherson Document Solutions.

The team was formed in late 2011 with the aim of using rallying to raise funds and awareness for charities through motorsport. To date they have raised over £3,500 and this year their supported charity is the Nystagmus Network. Nystagmus is a presently incurable eye condition from which Rachel’s son suffers so it is a cause that is very close to her heart. The team are also raising awareness of the Bottle Stop campaign, a project which is seeking to ban glass bottles from town centre pubs following the tragic death of the project founder’s husband in an unprovoked attack with a broken bottle.

“The Rally2Raise project has gone really well,” said Rachel. “I think we’ve done a good job raising awareness of our causes, especially those which are not so well known such as the Nystagmus Network. The rallying community has been incredibly generous in supporting us, I did not expect that we would raise so much in less than two years.”

“I’m really looking forward to the Merrick Stages, I enjoyed it last year and hopefully we will get another good result. The event uses some classic Scottish rallying stages which are a pleasure to compete on. The rally organisers have given us a discounted entry fee which we're extremely grateful for, it's fantastic that they are supporting Rally2Raise again.”

“We’ll have the lowest powered car in the event but that won’t stop us from pushing as hard as we can and trying to beat the crews in more powerful cars.”

As well as competing on the Merrick the team are busy organising a virtual rally to raise funds for the Nystagmus Network. The event will take place on 27th October and entries, costing £5, are available now. All levels of experience are catered for including total beginners and you don’t even have to leave your home to take part! Please visit www.songasport.co.uk/wobblyregs.pdf for more information.

Gearbox woes cannot deny Speyside finish for Rally2Raise

Severe gearbox problems and an off could not prevent the Rally2Raise team of Rachel Clark and Caroline Lodge from finishing the Speyside Stages rally last weekend.

The drama started almost immediately for the team in stage 1, Teindland. Their E.Watson and Son, Pirelli, AW Motorsport and McPherson Document Solutions-supported Nissan Micra 1300 hit a rut which bent the sumpguard and forced it into the gear linkage resulting in the loss of fifth and reverse gears and a third gear which was extremely difficult to engage.

The car was nursed through the next two stages before a service halt at Huntly where the Clark Motorsport crew of Barry and Archie set about repairing it sufficiently for it to continue in the rally.

“The rally did not get off to a good start for us,” said Rachel. “We hit the rut with a fair bit of force. With the gear linkage damaged I didn’t think we’d make it through the next two stages before service but we did and the service crew did a great job to allow us to continue.”

The crew completed stage 4, Gartly, with no further problems and headed to stages 5 and 6, two stages which shared the same start line but which split after a few miles. The girls’ rally almost came to an end in stage 6 as the Micra slid off the road into a ditch. Fortunately some spectators were on hand to push the car back onto the road.

After another service halt the rally was completed with three more stages. These were successfully negotiated and the team headed to the event finish in Elgin city centre.

“The Gartly stage was absolutely fantastic, it’s my new favourite stage. Stage 5 was ok but we were very lucky that there were some spectators nearby in stage 6 otherwise we would not have got out of the ditch, huge thanks to them for helping us.”

“I was very happy to get to the finish. It was a tough event for us, the dust and heat made the inside of the car like the Sahara at some points. It’s disappointing that the gearbox problems meant we couldn’t go as quickly as we’d have liked but we made it to the end when many crews didn’t and we were 65th which isn’t too bad from a start position of 97. Thanks to Caroline for a superb job on the notes, thanks to Barry and Archie for servicing, thanks to the 63 Car Club for a brilliant event and thanks to all our sponsors for their support. ”

The team are hoping to contest the Merrick Stages in September as their next event. Please visit www.rally2raise.co.uk or www.facebook.com/rally2raise for more information about the Rally2Raise project which is supporting the Nystagmus Network and Bottle Stop in 2013.