The borders tarmac delivered the highs and lows of motorsport for Angus driver John MacCrone in the weekend’s Jim Clark Rally round of the MSA British championship.
MacCrone had gone into the closed road event brimming with confidence, which looked well founded after setting a blistering pace on Friday night’s opening stages.
But the Mull 23-year-old, now based in Forfar, was denied the chance to push for overall victory after a broken front suspension link forced his Culina Palletforce RacingTeam Citroen DS3 into retirement on Saturday afternoon’s 11th stage. The disappointment left team-mate Peter Taylor and co-driver Andrew Roughead to carry the Culina Palletforce banner to a solid eighth overall in the second round of the championship.
Forfar’s MacCrone and co-driver Phil Pugh had been second fastest on the first three stages and quickest overall on stage four.
They settled into second place and were locked in a battle with series leader Jukka Korhonen when overheating brakes caused the Scot to slide wide into a kerb close to the end of the 16-mile Abbey St Bathans test.
The incident damaged a rear suspension beam and he dropped back to eighth by the overnight halt.
Once the action restarted on Saturday morning, MacCrone was back on the pace, but he had to limp through the ninth stage with handling problems and, unable to replace the broken suspension link at remote service, was forced into retirement.
“We just need to concentrate on the next event and coming away with a result,” said MacCrone.
Korhonen and co-driver Marko Salminen triumphed in the event, with the championship returning to gravel for the next round at the RSAC Scottish Rally in Dumfries on June 28-29.