2015 Scottish Rally Championship

The 2015 Scottish Rally Championship season was the 47th season of the Scottish Rally Championship, a rallying series run throughout Scotland over the course of a year. It was due to be contested over eight gravel rallies,^[1] but this was reduced to six events in 2015 after two rallies were cancelled. Points were awarded to the top placed drivers and the driver scoring the highest number of points over the season was declared Champion of the series.

The 2015 season began in the snow-covered forest tracks around Inverness on 21 February, with the season finale on 1 August, after the scheduled final event was cancelled. Jock Armstrong and regular co-driver Paula Swinscoe were declared champions following a consistent season where they scored two first and three second places. The Armstrong-Swinscoe pairing finished twelve points ahead of Bruce McCombie and Mike Faulkner. Faulkner clinched the runner-up position on countback, by two third places to one. Defending champions David Bogie and Kevin Rae won four rallies during the season – one of which being a class win behind the unregistered Dave Weston in Aberdeen – but their two retirements ultimately resulted in a fourth place championship position.

2015 calendar

For season 2015 there was to be eight events held on a variety of surfaces, but this was reduced to six following the cancellation of two events.

Round	Dates	Event	Rally HQ	Surface	Website
1	21 February	Arnold Clark Thistle Snowman Rally	Inverness	Gravel / Snow	(website)
2	21 March	Border Counties Rally	Jedburgh	Gravel	(website)
3	2 May	Granite City Rally	Aberdeen	Gravel	(website)
4	31 May	Jim Clark Reivers Rally	Kelso	Gravel	(website)
5	27 June	RSAC Scottish Rally	Dumfries	Gravel	(website)
6	1 August	Speyside Stages	Elgin	Gravel	(website)

Calendar changes

On 24 April, the Merrick Stages Rally management team announced via a press release that the 2015 event – usually round 7 of the championship and held in September – would not take place. The team intended to concentrate on a new style event for 2016.^[2] A stand-in eighth event was expected to be announced by the SRC, however, after failing to obtain the agreement of all registered competitors it was decided to remain a seven event calendar for 2015.^[3]

The Colin McRae Forest Stages intended to trial a new format for 2015 with the event taking place over two days. Competitors contesting the event were to tackle 2 or 3 special stages on the Saturday before an overnight halt and then resume the rally on Sunday morning with another 2 or 3 stages.^[4] However, due to reduced entries the organising committee announced on 23 September that the event would have to be cancelled.^[5]

Competitors nominated their best five scores from the six previous events of the season to find the champion driver.

2015 events podium

Round	Rally name	Podium finishers^[6]
Round	Rally name	Placing	Driver / Co-Driver	Car	Time / Diff leader
1	Snowman Rally (21 February)	1	Jock Armstrong / Paula Swinscoe	Subaru Impreza	43:59
		2	Bruce McCombie / Michael Coutts	Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution	+0:16
		3	Mike Faulkner / Peter Foy	Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution 9	+0:29

2	Border Counties Rally (21 March)	1	David Bogie / Kevin Rae	Ford Fiesta R5+	32:45
		2	Stephen Petch / Jack Morton^{[N 1]}	Ford Fiesta R5+	+0:40
		3	Peter Taylor / Andrew Roughead^{[N 1]}	Ford Focus	+0:44

3	Granite City Rally (2 May)	1	Dave Weston / Paul Beaton^{[N 1]}	Subaru Impreza WRC	40:27^{[N 2]}
		2	David Bogie / Kevin Rae	Ford Fiesta R5+	+0:00^{[N 2]}
		3	Jock Armstrong / Paula Swinscoe	Subaru Impreza	+1:45

4	Jim Clark Reivers Rally (31 May)	1	Jock Armstrong / Paula Swinscoe	Subaru Impreza	41:27
		2	Mike Faulkner / Peter Foy	Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution 9	+0:39
		3	Peter Taylor / Andrew Roughead^{[N 1]}	Ford Focus WRC	+0:45

5	RSAC Scottish Rally (27 June)	1	David Bogie / Kevin Rae	Ford Fiesta R5+	39:29
		2	Jock Armstrong / Paula Swinscoe	Subaru Impreza	+1:05
		3	Rory Young / Allan Cathers	Ford Fiesta R5	+1:26

6	Speyside Stages (1 August)	1	David Bogie / Kevin Rae	Ford Fiesta R5+	41:46
		2	Jock Armstrong / Paula Swinscoe	Subaru Impreza	+0:50
		3	Donnie Macdonald / Andrew Falconer	Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution 9	+1:31

Notes

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Crew was not registered to score points towards the Scottish Rally Championship.
^ ^a ^b Per the championship's sporting regulations, Weston was awarded victory over Bogie after recording a faster time on the final stage.^[7]

Drivers' championship standings

Pos	Driver	Car	TSR	BCR	GCR	JCR	SCO	SSR	Points^[8]
1	Jock Armstrong	Subaru Impreza	1	Ret	2	1	2	2	144
2	Mike Faulkner	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX	3	Ret	3	2	5	5	132
3	Bruce McCombie	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX	2	4	5	3	7	4	132
4	David Bogie	Ford Fiesta R5+	Ret	1	1	Ret	1	1	120
5	Shaun Sinclair	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX	7	5	4	DNS	8	7	117
Pos	Driver	Car	TSR	BCR	GCR	JCR	SCO	SSR	Points

Colour	Result
Gold	Winner
Silver	2nd place
Bronze	3rd place
Green	Non-podium finish
Purple	Did not finish (DNF)
Black	Disqualified (DSQ)
Blank	Did not start (DNS)
Blue	Nominated dropped points

Points were awarded to the highest placed registered drivers on each event as follows: 30, 28, 27, 26, and so on down to 1 point. At the end of the Championship, competitors nominated their best 5 scores out of the 6 events as their final overall Championship score.

References

^ "ARR Craib MSA Scottish Rally Championship". SRC. Scottish Rally Championship. Retrieved 2 January 2015.
^ "Merrick Stages Rally management committee to promote a new rally in Central Scotland". Merrick Stages. Machars Car Club Ltd. Archived from the original on 10 December 2014. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
^ "Rally - SRC Shock". John Fife. John Fife. Retrieved 19 July 2015.
^ "The Bears Are Plotting". SRC. Scottish Rally Championship. 10 March 2015. Retrieved 22 March 2015.
^ "Rally - McRae Rally Cancelled". Coltness Car Club. Coltness Car Club. Retrieved 23 September 2015.
^ "Rally Results from Scotland & Beyond..." FlyingFinish.co.uk. Flying Finish. Retrieved 21 March 2015.
^ Booth, Bruce (5 May 2015). "Granite City race was rally close after 42 miles". Daily Record. Trinity Mirror. Retrieved 17 May 2015. Then, after stewards consulted the rule book, Weston was given the win for posting a faster time on the final stage.
^ "Current Standings". SRC. Scottish Rally Championship. Retrieved 12 October 2015.

External links

[Ineligibles-7] Crew was not registered to score points towards the Scottish Rally Championship.

[Granite-9] Per the championship's sporting regulations, Weston was awarded victory over Bogie after recording a faster time on the final stage.^[7]

[1] "ARR Craib MSA Scottish Rally Championship". SRC. Scottish Rally Championship. Retrieved 2 January 2015.

[2] "Merrick Stages Rally management committee to promote a new rally in Central Scotland". Merrick Stages. Machars Car Club Ltd. Archived from the original on 10 December 2014. Retrieved 24 April 2015.

[3] "Rally - SRC Shock". John Fife. John Fife. Retrieved 19 July 2015.

[4] "The Bears Are Plotting". SRC. Scottish Rally Championship. 10 March 2015. Retrieved 22 March 2015.

[5] "Rally - McRae Rally Cancelled". Coltness Car Club. Coltness Car Club. Retrieved 23 September 2015.

[6] "Rally Results from Scotland & Beyond..." FlyingFinish.co.uk. Flying Finish. Retrieved 21 March 2015.

[8] Booth, Bruce (5 May 2015). "Granite City race was rally close after 42 miles". Daily Record. Trinity Mirror. Retrieved 17 May 2015. Then, after stewards consulted the rule book, Weston was given the win for posting a faster time on the final stage.

[10] "Current Standings". SRC. Scottish Rally Championship. Retrieved 12 October 2015.

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