In all there are more than 175 crews - the largest entry since 1998 - entered in the two-day Royal Scottish Automobile Club event. Supported by Dumfries and Galloway Council the RSAC Scottish Rally, as well as being the third round of the seven-round Pirelli British Rally Championship, is also a counter in the New Pig Scottish Rally Championship, the Peugeot 206 Super Cup, the Autosport Ford Ka Rally Championship, the Ferodo Ford Puma 1400 Rally Championship and the Castrol Polo Challenge.
This year the RSAC Scottish Rally will start from High Street, right in the centre of Dumfries, at 8.00 am on Saturday, June 8.
On the first day there are six special stages totalling 63 miles of competitive motoring timed to a fraction of a second. After an overnight halt in Dumfries, the remaining crews start the second leg of the rally on Sunday, June 9 at 8 am (preceded at 6 am by competitors in the New Pig Scottish Rally Championship) for five special stages with 61 miles of competitive sections.
The winner of the international rally is due to return to Dumfries for the champagne celebrations and award presentation around 4.30 pm on Sunday afternoon.
Rally snippets:
- Watch out for the performance of Justin Dale (Car 1) from Chilbolton on the Castle O'er stage. Last year he emerged from the stage sporting an ear-to-ear grin and exclaimed, ''A couple of bits in there are just magic!''.
- 1999 Asia Pacific Rally Champion Katsuhiko Taguchi (Car 11) competed in his first European Rally was the Rally of Cyprus last year. With co-driver Derek Ringer from Glasgow he was lying in 11th place, before the notoriously rough conditions took a toll on the Lancer's suspension.
- David Higgins sat up until 1 am before the rally last year, watching in-car videos of the Scottish stages! With that and the experience from last year, will the second place man from the previous-round International Rally of Wales be unstoppable?
