Flying Scotsman 2026 - Long and tricky – day two of the Vintage Flying Scotsman Rally
*Hunt and Galliver still lead but Dreelan and Fieldhouse breathing down their necks
*Weather cools but not the rally enthusiasm as crews love the 188 mile circular route
*Great day of rallying bookended at Mike Dreelan’s estate for tests and steam vehicle display
In a different format for the Flying Scotsman, the event has stayed an all Scottish affair with a circular 188 mile route for day two from Aberdeen to Aberdeen, including six regularities and four tests which have really tested all the crews as some errors have crept in affecting results. It has been a long and tricky day, but Theo Hunt and Jimmy Galliver (Frazer Nash TT) have held and extended the lead to 23 seconds, although Mike Dreeland and Miles Fieldhouse (Alvis 25) have been breathing down their necks all day, just keeping that pressure on when they closed to just 16 seconds in arrears at the lunch halt.
Said a tired Theo Hunt at the end of the last test of the day on Mike Dreelan’s estate; “ Yeah, it's been a quite a long day. It had six regs today and four speed tests, and lot's come at us today. We had one bad reg where fortunately a lot of other crews also had a bad regularity too. Unfortunately, we also had a bystander trying to send us the wrong way, so we lost a bit of time there and then just didn't catch up, we just kind of confounded our error slightly.
“But the rest of it's been good. James has done a great job today, our speed tests have been pretty good, though. We just heard that Mike Dreelan, whose lovely house we're at now, was actually only a second slower than us on that last test, I think James was quite scared, so I'm not quite sure how he was that close, but it’s been good.”
Mike Dreelan and Miles Fieldhouse were also trying to keep the third place Chevrolet Fangio Coupe at bay in the ‘Battle of the Brothers’ with driver Tommy Dreelan and Mike Cochrane in the morning, Tommy and Mike have now slipped to fifth place as Emily Anderson and Simon Arscott snatched third in their Aston Martin and will in turn be pushing the Alvis crew as hard as they can on the final day. Mike Dreelan and Miles Fieldhouse have been breathing down the leaders necks all day, it was16 seconds at lunchtime and now it’s 23 seconds with one day to go, so it's going to be tight contest.
Theo; “Yes it will be. We were definitely hoping to extend our gap today, not decrease it. But I think we gained some time on the speed tests, and our regularities were pretty good, so I'm a bit happier with 23 seconds now, but yes it is a hell of a long day tomorrow. As we know, we've lost it on the last day before with the car breaking, so I'm looking over the car tonight and hopefully nothing's wrong, we'll just see how tomorrow goes. Big fingers crossed!”
There was a real contrast this morning with a chill in the air and clouds, as the 63 Vintage rally cars headed to a fast and slippy gravel test generously made available by the second man on the road, Mike Dreelan himself on his estate. He was fast in his own back yard, but Theo Hunt and Jimmy Galliver were faster and spectacularly sideways! The day was to be book ended with another test on the estate plus Mike opened up his amazing collection of steam driven vehicles and fair ground attractions for the competitors to enjoy at the end of the day all laid out in the huge sheds. As Maximillian Matt (DE) said; “It was absolutely amazing, I have never seen anything like it!”
The weather changed and so did the landscape with fertile valleys and rolling hills. The long roads around the hills gave great views, before dropping down again into flatter terrain with some tighter tracks under the trees, plus the odd farm yard and square corners to punctuate the straights. There were changes, but not in the enthusiasm for the rally, the crews were lapping it up even if there were errors creeping in due to the sometimes ‘tricky’ navigation.
There was a test called ‘On the Buses’ at the Grampian Transport Museum and a test at the Cridland Raceway for the first time, which caught some experienced rallyists out! Bentley man Oliver Treutlein (DE) and Yorkshire’s own Henry Carr had to reverse to re-negotiate the chicanes and quick man Andrew Boland (Talbot) with the experienced Mark Bramall alongside, also got it wrong after being just a second down on pacesetter Theo Hunt at yesterday’s raceway.
Worse was to follow for Theo’s father Martin Hunt and Bob Mannix in their Frazer Nash BMW as they were given a ‘wrong test’ with a hefty time penalty. Previous runner up on the Flying Scotsman, Martin, took up the story; “Everything that could go wrong has gone wrong today. We had an agricultural vehicle in our way then a Land Rover – then a wrong test! I’m not sure what the penalty is, maybe it’s death!” Martin and Bob have slipped down to 14th.
John Lomas, Pete Johnson Riley Sprite, 4th overall
John; “Day two, very tricky, very challenging. A little slot into a farm yard that was hard and a bit of lateness. So, I mean, it's typical Scotsman. I don't know, a lot of us have made mistakes. We might have dropped off the podium, we might be down in the sort of 10s. I don't know, but it's rallying, isn't it? The most frustrating sport known to man. We are loving it though, the roads are outrageously good. The weather's good, hospitality is good. It's another good Scotsman, I don't know how they're going to beat this one next year!”
Carlos and Miles Rieder, Ford A Coupe, 24th OA 2nd in class
Carlos; ”We are doing fine, just that in the morning, some little sleep we missed, but everything else is okay, and the car is still running, and we're having a good time. My son is very good navigating first time, but he does it outstanding.
Miles; “I try my best. Reading the maps is the most difficult and it’s very important to prepare that as good as possible. And then, yeah, also bit of luck that I don't miss the important parts.”
Miles Fieldhouse, Alvis 25, 2nd overall
Miles; “Yeah, it's brilliant. It's nice because obviously Mike knows his spot really well. So we got a nice run around. Today's been really good, I think, steady away but not perfect all the time. Weve been pretty good on the whole so we are happy with it. We don't know where we're at, but we've enjoyed it.
“Mike’s estate here is amazing. I got sneaky look around yesterday, actually, because we came up to have a go at Tommy’s car as we were we're fixing it, pretty impressive. I've never seen a collection like that. I don't think I ever will. I'm going to have another look around!”
Mike Dreelan was thanked by HERO-ERA for brilliant day, book ending the beginning and the end of the day on his fantastic estate with the incredible displays.
Mike; “It's a pleasure. At least the weather has been good and I hope everyone enjoyed it. You can see the dust plumes from here with the cars coming in plus all the spectators watching have made a great atmosphere. So cheers, thanks, I even enjoyed it myself!
“Miles is fantastic, we were just 16 seconds away at lunchtime, so OK, we've been doing good, we're happy, but there's another day to go so we will try and take this win, just try and do the best we can. That's all we can do. Just keep doing what we've been doing, and as long as we don't have a problem the Alvis will get us home.”
Franc and Tessa Hofermann-Kiefer, Invicta S Type low chassis, 22nd OA 1st in Class
Tessa is navigating her father Franc, on her very first rally.
Tessa; “Yes, my very first rally. It's fun so far, the weather's just turning a bit rainy, but until now, we had just some sunshine and a few mishaps on the way here. But it's all going fine. Maybe with rain and wind it is the real Scotland, but once my father had a rally here with only rain!”
Franc; “It's great fun, because driving these cars in the rain with no hoods, nothing up, is the best, and it's fourth time for me here, yet the rally is getting better and better. People, cars, weather. I'm not sure how you manage it, to get the weather like this, but you're doing a good job.
“It's the fun rally. It's the fun part, because I'm always driving with a new navigator, so it's always kind of a stress test. And this time, it's going quite good, but it's totally different compared to P2P because it's more about fun and making mistakes and laughing about it and arguing about it, and so it's different.”
Would Tessa like to do it again? Tessa; “Yes, because now that I get to know how everything's to be done, now I want to do it better. It's competitive, I like being competitive.”