Mikkelsen wins RallyScotlandposted in RSCOT09 | 10 | 2011
WITHIN MINUTES OF the Champagne corks being popped on the RallyScotland podium at Scone Palace, winner Andreas Mikkelsen had phoned his favourite Chinese restaurant in Perth to order his crispy duck.
The 22-year-old Norwegian, second on the gruelling three-day event 12 months ago, vowed then that he would celebrate his first Intercontinental Rally Championship win with his favourite Chinese.
Little did he know then that it would take exactly a year, and 11 events, before could tuck into his No 1 savoury.
"Yes, it's been a long time," Mikkelsen (pictured in action today), who was the class act amongst the cream of Europe's leading Super 2000 rally drivers, said today after the podium ceremony at Scone Palace.
"If I'd known it was going to take so long, I don't think I'd have made the pledge. Now though I'm definitely going to celebrate in style … at the Chinese."
Mikkelsen's driving was impeccable through all 15 demanding stages, the majority turned into a rock-strewn quagmire waiting to punish the slightest error.
Even the talented Norwegian feared the worst when his Skoda UK Motorsport Fabia S2000 struck a rock three kilometres from the finish of the final 17-mile forest stage at High Corrie deep in the Loch Ard Forest.
"I heard the thump and immediately the car's handling changed dramatically," he explained. "I thought 'that's it, my rally's over', but thankfully it was just a puncture and we managed to get to the finish."
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Mikkelsen, one of six drivers who can now win the title in the final round in Cyprus next month and acknowledged as one of the world's most talented young drivers, was imperious in the Scottish glaur.
Fastest through four of the five stages on Saturday, he started yesterday's closing seven stages with a healthy 50.7secs lead. That plunged him a world of uncertainty.
"I had a big lead to protect, but I didn't want to back off too much simply because that encourages mistakes," he continued.
"You need to lean on these cars hard to make the tyres work and keep it balanced. If you back off too much, you totally change the characteristics of the car.
"So we decided just to go for it."
But so too did the rest of his main contenders, and as they headed into the day's fourth stage at Loch Chon in the lee of Ben Lomond, defending IRC champ and last year's RallyScotland winner Juho Hanninen had closed the gap to 28.3s
Riled by that, Mikkelsen upped the pace and went quickest on the next stage, the second run through Loch Chon, immediately opening the gap to 36.7s over Hanninen's Skoda.
That allowed him to cruise through the final two spectator stages at Scone Palace to seal his first IRC win — by 26.4secs from Hanninen, third-placed Bryan Bouffier's Peugeot 95.3s adrift — and his crispy duck.
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"To win my first IRC event on Skoda UK's home round, RallyScotland, is absolutely fantastic," Mikkelsen, hugged by his mum Petra, and with tears rolling down his face, said. "It's a dream come true."
There was deep disappointment though for the two leading Scots. Lanark's Alister McRae retired his Proton on Saturday when a rock in Errochty punctured the sump, draining it of its oil.
Newly-crowned British rally champ, and triple Scottish champion David Bogie, was forced out when he ripped the left-rear wheel off his Mitsubishi Evo IX.
"I went about two inches offline in a fast right-hander, went a tad wide into a grassy bank, and there was a hidden rock. A heavy penalty to pay for two inches, but that's motorsport."
That opened the door for 23-year-old John MacCrone, the joiner from Dervaig on the Isle of Mull, to finish top Scot in the biggest annual motorsport event in the country.
Driving his Tunnocks-backed Ford Fiesta 1600, MacCrone and his co-driver, Ayr's Stuart Loudon, was also the leading two-wheel-drive car. And the Scots were delighted.
"That's the first finish we've had in six starts this year," a relieved MacCrone, a highly creditable 16th overall, said. "We've had a few technical issues this year, but we decided we really needed to get the result this weekend.
"We had two punctures today, and clattered a huge rock which ripped off the rear bumper and damaged the right-rear wheel. It meant the car was handling like a shopping trolley for the rest of the day.
"This is the best result of our careers, by a huge margin, and hopefully we can use it now as a springboard into next season."
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Jim McGill