The 2011 event will be one to remember, not due to the epic battles for positions or like in the past with great names entering. Instead it will be one to remember because of the weather! It could not have rained harder! It was muddy, slippy and reduced visibility due to low cloud and mist in some of the stages.

This year saw a couple of changes in the running of the event. Firstly we had moved from our usual start and finish in Perth to the whole event being run from Aberfeldy. The town and its people made us very welcome and the people played a very important part to the running of the event on the day. If it was not for the spirit and community of the Aberfeldy people the day would have ground to a halt very quickly.

The second change to the event was the inclusion of the Dunlop Wanago British Historic Championship. This was the first time this championship had ventured this far into Scotland. What a sight it was seeing all the historic cars leaving the Aberfeldy start line. There were 30 BHRC competing crews and 2 very well known drivers joining them, Stig Blomqvist and Jimmy McRae.

It was an early start with the BHRC competitors leaving at 7.30am and the regular SRC competitors leaving at 8.30am. The stages were set 50 miles for the Nat A (BHRC) and 45 miles for the Nat B (SRC & Others).

The stages to be used included some of the highest stages in the country and the most scenic on offer in Scotland. The stages had been basked in a freak warm, sunny spell for 2 days prior to the event, but what a difference it made to the stages with a night of heavy rain! The stages set to be used were Griffin, Drummondhill, Errochty, Craigvinean and a second run at Griffin for the Nat A competitors.

The first run through Griffin was stopped short by an accident. it became clear that the stage would need to be cancelled to give time for the rescue and recovery crews to get the injured parties out from the stage. With some head bashing at HQ the decision came to cancel stage 5 of the Nat A (BHRC) competitors but instead run all competitors through stage 1 again at the end of the day. This meant that the Nat B competitors still got the full 45 miles and the Nat A competitors only lost 5 miles instead of 8.

The were quite a few slip ups during the rest of the stages with a number of cars sliding off the stages due to the wet conditions. This left gaps and delays but these were necessary to ensure the safety of everyone competing and spectating.

During the day as the rain fell on the stages it also fell on the service area! This meant that the service field now resembled the famous mud bath scenes from Glastonbury! This is where the community of Aberfeldy came into force. A team of tractor drivers were on hand to help move everyone who came stuck in and around the service area. The task was not an easy one but this team of local volunteers soon got the whole area moving again. I dont think anyone could disagree when it was suggested that the Spirit of the Rally award had to go to this team.

So it is all over for another year! we came, we saw, we got very wet and muddy! It may take year for all the mud to be cleared from cars and service vans but the organising team will soon be back into the swing of things and starting the process for next years event.

The team would like to thank all of you at the event, the marshals and officials who spent the day out in the worst conditions. The drivers who came from all over the country and further afield. We hope the conditions did not put you off and we will hopefully have a drier event next year. We also would like to thank all the people of Aberfeldy for the support and hard work that they gave us in our move to the town. Lastly we would like to thank all the spectators who despite the weather came out in the thousands to cheer on everyone involved.

We would like to congratulate all the class winners of both the SRC and BHRC events and the final results can be found here.