Jock Armstrong was thrilled to make the perfect start to the 2023 Scottish Rally Championship season by winning the A.M. Phillip Trucktech Snowman Rally for the third time.
The Castle Douglas driver and co-driver Hannah McKillop were seeded fourth for the race but finished in a time of 43:46 – nine seconds ahead of second-place John Wink (Huntly) and Neil Shanks (Elgin).
Top seeds Michael Binnie (Cornhill on Tweed) and Claire Mole (Duns) finished third in their Mitsubishi Evo 9 in a time of 44:01.
Armstrong had previously won the event in 2010 and 2015 and described completing his hat-trick as “special”, adding: “It was a brilliant field with a lot of tough competition.
“I have been working hard and it has all come together.
““It was a very testing course. In years gone by it has always been icy and much slower.
“The stages were really good, it was an exciting event.
“It is a pleasing start to the season.”
Armstrong also praised co-driver McKillop who replaced his usual co-driver Cammy Fair, who had just celebrated the arrival of a baby boy.
He added: “Hannah was great, the notes were brilliant.”
Scott Macbeth (Muir of Ord) and Daniel Forsyth (Elgin) saw their hopes of a home success ended after being involved in an accident.
Macbeth wrote on social media: “Thank you to all of the messages to Dan and myself to check we were alright after our accident, we got away lightly with concussion, bumps and bruises.
“Thank you to fellow competitors for helping us at the stage and to the recovery crews.
“Thanks to the medical staff.”
He added: “It was a dream start for us to lead the rally by a decent margin having sat in the car first time Friday morning. It just felt right.
“Ultimately we were caught out, running wide clipping a ditch culvert which put us into a big roll. Gutting.
“I’m sure we will try again some day.”
On a day when only 53 of the 102 cars finished the race, it was also disappointment for Aberdeen’s Chris Collie and his Inverness co-driver Ricky Finlayson.
He said: “Not the start we wanted for the 2023 Scottish Rally Championship.
“After an over-cautious start on stage 1, we discovered we had a boost leak and then it was a case of getting through stage 1 and 2 and back to service.
“Managed to fix the problem and onto stage 3.
“Unfortunately, something had let go and caused us to stop in stage, ending our rally before it really began.
“We will look to get the car fixed and ready for the The McDonald and Munro Speyside Stages end of next month.”
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