Gold medal glory in Lands End to John O' Groats rally for Moray driver Stewart Christie who battled treacherous ice, snow and fog over 1500 miles and 75 hours to reach finish line
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Dufftown driver Stewart Christie took on the toughest classic rally event in Europe, and emerged with a gold medal triumph.
The Land’s End to John O’ Groats (LEJOG) Reliability Trial took competitors over 1500 miles in 75 hours during the winter, and some of the worst weather in the event's 30-year history.
Not even treacherous black ice, snow and fog could wither the determination of Christie (32) - who is originally from the Huntly area - and his experienced navigator Andy Ballantyne from completing the course in impressive fashion.
"I have never had to concentrate so much on driving and I have never seen so much ice on the roads," said the marine engineer, a member of Elgin's 63 Car Club.
"It was a great adventure and something I will never forgot."
The second time Christie had competed in the endurance event over the length of Britain between England's south-western extremities and Scotland's famous north-eastern point, it was by far his most difficult.
Fascinated by the event since he first helped his father in marshalling duties at the age of 12, he competed in 2019 and managed to win one of the coveted gold medals.
LEJOG is a rally that doesn't have outright winners, but awards medals to those reaching a certain high standard.
"Which medal a crew wins depends on the amount of penalties they have (less penalties the better the medal status) and if a crew misses any of the time controls they cannot win any medal," Christie explained.
Just reaching the finish line in Scotland and driving under the arch to the piper's salute is considered to be a very special achievement after five gruelling legs of action - and very little sleep.
"It took a while for the result to sink in for me as the rally had been so hard going at times I was just happy to get to the finish," said Christie, one of only four drivers given a gold medal at this winter's competition.
"To top it off with a gold medal is fantastic."
Christie remembers attending his first rally with his dad at the age of three. Nine years later he was navigating in road rallies and by the age of 14 he competed in autotest events - before his studies and then working life limited his opportunities.
The chance to compete in LEJOG for the second time in his classic MGB GT motor for the event's 30th anniversary was too much to resist last year, and he signed up to make the long trek down to Land's End - then back up again.
He picked up his co-driver Ballantyne, who is based near the start point, and lined up as one of 44 crews revved up for the adventure.
The big start on a Saturday morning at 7am took in the first test using roads at the Land's End Hotel, with some early signs of wintry weather.
"With the smaller patches of ice and snow plus the amount of people on the roads it made the first leg regularities a bit tricky."
A mistake-free start, two fastest-times in class and the repair of a damaged brake calliper was followed by more weather issues. "We headed into Wales and Chepstow race course for a test where fog made it even more difficult with visibility being reduced to only a few metres in front of the car."
A meal stop brought the first leg of the journey to an end, with the second stage taking competitors deeper into Welsh territory for the night.
"As we headed further north through Wales, the snow had started to fall and lie on the roads creating a thin slippy layer to form.
"This made not just staying on the road difficult but also getting up some of the steep inclines almost impossible as we were to find out at the next regularity as we came across one of the Volvo Amazons stuck across the middle of the road on one of the hills."
Assisted by another crew, Christie and Ballantyne managed to help move the stricken vehicle to one side and allow others to proceed.
Next came a time control section to finish the second leg, a fast-paced section Christie particularly enjoyed when he last competed in LEJOG - but this time ice provided a major obstacle.
"At the first junction we became stuck on the ice and unable to make up and over the turn.
"With a bit of perseverance though, we found some traction at the side of the road and got out of the junction. For the rest of the night the roads were covered in black ice - I had never seen anything as bad as that before.
"Even on straight pieces of road at times it proved difficult to keep the car under control and we had to reduce speed to a crawl to get down some of the hills and around corners.
"I remember trying to brake to take a turn on to another road and the car just locking up and sailing past the turn on the ice. It took full concentration from both driver and navigator to just get round and to the end of the time control section."
Even then there was no time to relax, with the crew realising they had only minutes to spare before reaching their 'maximum lateness' threshold. Christie and Ballantyne just made it, with many other crews either going off the road, getting stuck or simply deciding not to continue.lot of crews either going off the road, getting stuck or some deciding not to continue.
After some 3am motor checks, and some time for sleep it was back on the road at 7am for the start of leg three beginning with two tests around a local go-kart track.
"The scenery over the Pennines was great especially with the snow on it. There were some tricky and steep roads that we were wary of but thankfully they were clear enough that we didn’t need to worry about getting stuck and instead could enjoy them a little more."
A less stressful third stage took Christie to the overnight halt in Newcastle, where they discovered they were still in contention for gold and first in their class - a position they enjoyed over dinner, a pint and the sharing of stories with other competitors.
The fourth leg was the beginning of the final and longest day of the rally, some 27 hours broken up by a two-hour rest halt in Aviemore.
"I had been looking forward (to leg 4) as it heads through Scotland and was keen to get going - but maybe a bit too keen.
"Going into a 90 degree left corner I failed to spot the ice covering the corner. I was going too fast and went straight off up on to a bank. Due to the ice and the car being hooked up on the bank I couldn’t get the car reversed out and back on to the test."
But for one of the marshals stationed nearby who helped push them out, that could have been the end of the line for the Moray contender.
The next stretch took Christie over some roads he had experienced in the Jim Clark Rally in the Borders, with standing water created by melting snow causing the biggest problems.
Now in Scotland, a lunch halt at Dunfermline was followed by a journey inland towards Crieff, then Killin. As temperatures dropped again, one regularity was cancelled due to the icy roads.
The route carried crews past Ben Lawers Dam with a compact layer of snow on this higher section of road providing very little traction.
Passing the A9, some back roads took the crew to Aviemore for a well-earned rest ahead of the fifth and final leg - after that it was no stop until John O' Groats.
"Leg 5 would start with a regularity named the Loch Ness Monster, which was intended to be 66 miles long but the ice was so bad in some places that the marshals couldn’t even reach their posts - so instead the regularity was shortened down to 33 miles.
"By this time any roads that weren’t the main road were just sheet ice. At some of the timing points the marshals were just struggling to stand up."
Christie became aware that each regularity he faced over the remainder of the course would be just as icy all the way to John O' Groats.
Told that one mile-and-a-half stretch would be treacherous, but OK beyond that, they discovered that the supposedly bad section was in fact the easiest part, and past there was black ice everywhere. "Even touching the throttle too quickly sent the car sliding sideways."
Closing in on the finish, the crews came to the final test at Golspie go-kart track where limited traction left many struggling to get off the start line as the wheels just spun, but Christie and Ballantyne skated their way through without any penalties.
A quick breakfast stop in Lybster led the surviving competitors to the final regularity, a very difficult challenge made all the harder by the ice as well as public on the roads.
"The organisers had decided to run it as a sort of route check section so we no longer had to worry about speed or timing. Instead we could take it steady and make sure we got the correct roads. We then head to John O' Groats and to the finish at around 12 in the afternoon.
"With the lack of sleep and the amount of concentration the rally had taken from both of us just to even make it to the finish, it was a massive relief to finally drive the car through the finish arch.
"We then headed to our hotel in Wick for some well-deserved sleep before the awards ceremony that evening."
"It was confirmed that four crews including us had managed to win gold, three crews had won silver, no one had won bronze and only one crew had gotten a Blue Riband.
"We had also managed to come first in our class. Out of the 44 cars that started, only 27 finished proving that even getting a finish on LEJOG is a major achievement.
"One of the experienced teams who won their seventh gold this year said it had been the toughest LEJOG they had ever done."
Christie thanked his co-driver Ballantyne "for his brilliant navigation skills", as well as the event organisers and marshals, and Cameron Christie and Stuart wood for helping him to prepare and maintain his car.
Stewart Christie and Andy Ballantyne were mighty in their MG B GT throughout as they overcame the severe conditions and stayed in the gold medal position for the longest as others either dropped out or climbed the ranks.
