SCOTS motorsport fans can look forward to plenty of thrills and spills as Knockhill hosts the Grant Construction Rally on Sunday.
It’s the 12th time the event has been held at the famous Fife circuit and it promises draw in dozens of top cars and crews.
They will battle it out over 10 stages and almost 40 competitive miles as the opening round of the Scottish Tarmack Rally Championship, the Scottish Border Rally Championship and the Border Ecosse Club Championship.
With action taking place on the main Knockhill track, perimeter road and hillside rally stage. There are five classes eligible to enter – from 1400cc cars and four-wheel-drive supercars through to classic and historic models.
The venue’s director of events, Stuart Gray, said: “We are all looking forward to our first event of the year with the Grant Construction Rally at Knockhill.
“There is snow in the forecast that could add to the challenges of the rally crews, making the action even more spectacular for the fans, for whom we are open to full numbers.
“There are even a couple of entries from drivers doing the event as practice ahead of the McRae Rally Challenge in July. It should be top action wherever you look, with about 45 top tarmac crews entered for the 10-stage event. Action kicks off at 9am all the way through to around 4.30pm.”
Further afield, a number of Scots endurance racers have competed in the first of two back-to-back weekends of action in the Asian Le Mans Series (ALMS) – with mixed results.
In the first four-hour event at the Dubai Autodrome, former champions Colin Noble, from Midlothian, and team-mate Tony Wells had been leading the LMP3 class.
But an electrical gremlin at the United Arab Emirates circuit took the result from the No8 Nielsen Racing Ligier JS P320 crew.
In the GT Am category, however, Motherwell’s Ian Loggie helped his SPS Automotive Performance Mercedes-AMG GT3 team top the podium. Noble and Wells bounced back in Sunday’s encounter, though, to take the LMP3 honours and Loggie and Co once again won the GT Am class.
Sadly, TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage racer Jonny Adam and Attempto Racing Audi R8 driver Finlay Hutchison missed out on podium places in the main GT category.
This weekend should see them all back in action for two races at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi. And joining the fray in the LMP2 class will be former ALMS champion Paul Di Resta – racing for United Autosports in their Oreca 07.
The West Lothian driver said: “I have good memories of the last time I raced in the Asian Le Mans Series, winning it in 2018/2019. I haven’t raced since Le Mans last year with United but I’m looking forward to getting back to it.”
Meanwhile, Aberdonian father and son Stewart and Lewis Proctor are teaming up with Greystone GT to drive a McLaren 720S GT3 in the British GT Championship this year.
While this is Silverstone-based Greystone GT’s first foray into the series, the Scots aim to build on their success last year when they clinched the Silver-Am title.
Lewis said: “We have a strong testing programme in place with Greystone GT, which hopefully will mean we can hit the ground running when the season starts.”
