Propshaft failure put paid to Johnnie Mackay’s hopes of a good result on the Snowman Rally.
The John Easson Award winner was debuting his new Mitsubishi Evo7 on the Inverness-based event, and looking to make an immediate impact on the SRC Challengers Championship.
But it was all over before it had really got going, when Johnnie and co-driver Ian Parker were forced to pull over two miles into the opening stage.
“Almost as soon as we set off I knew something was wrong. There was a bad vibration from under the floor pan that clearly wasn’t going to stop,” he explained.
“After a couple of miles, the propshaft bolts sheared and that was it, we pulled off the road and that was it.
“Gutted doesn’t even begin to describe how we both felt. Ironically, the car had done a full test at Clatteringshaws the week before the rally and never missed a beat.
“It’s a setback but we just have to overcome it. The idea was to use the Snowman to get more acclimatised to the new car, and we could drop the score if we needed to. Now we have to focus on the next round, the Speyside Stages Stages, and prepare for that.
“The list of retirements on the Snowman was horrendous, so we weren’t the only crews to experience bad luck – but that’s not much consolation!
“If there is a positive, it’s that I’m even more determined to go to the second round and get a good result.”
Johnnie Mackay Rallying would like to thank his supporters
2300 Club John Easson Award
ISS Aberdeen Ltd
Kewtech
Vans4u Aberdeen
Strathdon Solutions
GPM
Stark Motorsport
Pirelli Motorsport
Andrew Wood Motorsport
DamperTek
