Dumfries and Galloway rally crews head north for Speyside Stages

All roads lead north for the region’s rally crews this weekend.

The battle for the KNC Groundworks Scottish Rally Championship moves to Elgin and Fochabers for the 25th running of the McDonald & Munro Speyside Stages Rally.

And leading the crews off the start ramp will be Jock Armstrong of Castle Douglas. He won the opening round, the Snowman Rally with co-driver Hannah McKillop. Their Subaru Impreza will have a new spoiler.

Among his rivals will be Angus Lawrie of Castle Douglas and Paul Gribben of Annan in their Mitsubishi Evo 9 and the Proton Satria of Dumfries’ Mark McCulloch and navigator Michael Hendry.

Canonbie’s John McIlwraith and co-driver Heather Grisedale dominated both the Albyn Garage Challengers and the Groundwater Lift Trucks Subaru Cup on the opening round and will be aiming for more success.

Other four-wheel drive entries from the region include the Ford Fiesta Rally2 of Dalbeattie’s Iain Wilson, who’ll have Chris Williams on the notes, with Castle Douglas’ Scott Peacock in a Mitsubishi Evo 8.

There is also an Impreza from Solway Car Club pair Jan Budge and Bruce Lindsay, with Dumfries’ Owen Paterson be co-driving in the Subaru of Martin Burke.

Ford Escort Mk2s are also popular with Penpont’s Jim Robertson leading the way in the Haddo Energy Super Seniors with co-driver Graham Wild. His competitors in class H2 include the Mk2 of Bridge of Dee’s Donald Peacock and Dumfries’ Mairi Riddick.

Other Escorts include Dumfries pair David Hardie and John McCulloch, as well as Stranraer’s John Baillie and Chris Wareham of Glenbarr, in class M4.

The two-wheel drive classes feature the Peugeot 208 Rally4 of Dumfries duo Peter Stewart and Harry Marchbank. They won the title last year and also took