Stewartry to welcome Scottish Rally Championship for Galloway Hills Rally

The KNC Groundworks Scottish Rally Championship heads to the Stewartry this weekend.

And fans heading to the Armstrong Galloway Hills Rally will be treated to some spectacular action in the dark on Saturday night.

The penultimate round of this year’s Scottish Rally Championship will be based at Talnotry in the Galloway Forest Park, with three stages each being run twice.

And as a bonus, each stage will be run again in the evening – which won’t count for championship position but will be used to decide the overall winner of the 49th running of the event, organised by Solway, Machars and East Ayrshire Car Clubs.

Eighty-seven crews have signed up, with 59 aiming to tackle all nine stages.

Event sponsor Jock Armstrong from Castle Douglas heads into the event top of the standings as he looks for a third title.

Among his rivals will be the Ford Fiesta Rally 2 of Kirkgunzeon’s Rory Young, who won the Scottish championship section of the Argyll Rally from the Proton Satria of Dumfries’ Mark McCulloch earlier this season.

There’s another Fiesta from Dalbeattie’s Iain Wilson, with Angus Lawrie of Castle Douglas and Paul Gribben out in their Mitsubishi Evo 9.

Other Dumfries and Galloway crews include the Evo 8 of Castle Douglas’ Scott Peacock and Craig Wallace, the Ford Fiesta S2000 Turbo of Lochfoot’s Andy Scott and the Subaru Impreza of Canonbie’s John McIlwraith.

There are also a plethora of local Ford Escort Mk2s heading for the stages, including one from Penpont’s Greg McKnight, Dumfries pair David Hardie and John McCulloch, the entry of Bridge of Dee’s Donald Proudlock and Dumfries’ Mairi Riddick and the car of Penpont’s Jimmy Robertson and Thornhill’s Mike Curry.

There’s also John Baillie from Stranraer