Rally champs face race against team for GB dream
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SCOTTISH rally champions Paul Beaton and Euan Thorburn face a race against time to fulfil their dream of competing in the World Rally Championships.
The pair need to sell their Ford Focus WRC to fund the purchase and build of a new car, in time for Rally GB in Wales on 13th November. Entry forms have been submitted to the FIA, the governing body for world motorsport, and selling the car would give their chances of competing a major boost.
Their Focus is too old to compete at an international level but has already attracted interest from bidders in Belgium and Portugal. If the Portuguese interest is successful this weekend, it would allow Beaton and Thorburn to press on with the £180,000 build of the Ford Fiesta RS, which is of current World Rally Championship specification.
Drakies co-driver Beaton, who won the Scottish championship in Perth with Thorburn three weeks ago, is forgoing this weekend’s final race in East Ayrshire to push through with the sale of the car.
"There’s a guy from Portugal who needs to sell two cars first, then hopefully he can buy ours," said Beaton. "But we haven’t started looking at sponsorship yet because we’ve still got a lot of work to do with the car. The race is booked now and if we don’t get the car sorted in time, we’ll need to withdraw."
It would represent a blow to the pair if that played out, having won the national championship after years of trying and winning the national stage of last year’s Rally GB. They will receive their title at an awards dinner in December.
While it is with a tinge of sadness that the champions are leaving the Scottish rally scene behind, Beaton said it feels like the right time to progress.
Rival David Bogie had won the five previous Scottish titles, including on the last stage of the 2013 season when Beaton and Thorburn saw the championship slip from their grasp.
"It’s certainly time for us to move on and to let someone else take the reins," said Beaton. "We’ve had our ups and down over the years but had a lot of good times. The stages are some of the best in Britain and so is the competition.
"The guys that run it are a good bunch of people and you get to know everyone, from the organisers to the event stewards. I’m sure I will still be out and about at their events.
"What we have benefited from is getting away to other championships to get knowledge of other stages, which has given us a good footing."
Entry forms lodged with the FIA are to ensure that nobody is permitted to enter races that is not of qualified standard.
The duo have made the decision to stick with a Ford car for the race, due to replacement parts being more readily available and the team’s engineers able to begin construction on the vehicle straight away.
Skoda had been a possibility but a waiting list of two to three weeks exists to ship parts from the Czech Republic.
"Ford have been very good to us so it was a no-brainer," said Beaton. "It makes it easier for our engineers too, because they already know how to build and repair the car. Replacement parts are only a couple of hours down the road from where Euan is at Duns."
Funding will be the next big obstacle to racing, with discussions to take place once the current car has been sold.
Beaton is still working for his electrical contracting company in Inverness and would need to take a week off work to compete in Rally GB.
He is under no illusions however that they have what it takes to compete.
"We won the national stage of Rally GB last year by five minutes. Looking at the overall times, including the international racers, we would have been in the top 12," said Beaton.
"The guys there actually get to drive the stages beforehand. That would allow us to do our own recce and make notes. I’ve no doubt we’d be able to finish in the top 10."
