WATCH: Victory for Finlay Retson and Paul Beaton over two days at McDonald & Munro Speyside Stages as night-time rally experience pays off

It was a big weekend for Elgin's 63 Car Club in hosting a landmark Speyside Stages Rally.

Marking their 60th anniversary, 25 years of the rally and ten years of McDonald & Munro sponsorship, the club treated the competitors to two stages in the dark on Friday night along with its traditional Saturday format.

Perthshire driver Finlay Retson claimed a maiden victory in the event along with co-driver Paul Beaton.

Taking the initiative on the Friday night, the pair were fastest on both the opening stages in the dark to take a seven-second lead to bed with them despite catching another competitor on stage one.

Retson described the woods in the dark as “mega” as he drew on his Mull and British Rally Championship experiences of night-time rallying.

On Saturday they kept the pressure on, setting four fastest times and never being outside of the top seven to pilot their Fiesta Rally 2 to their first win as a team and Retson’s first win on gravel.

Snowman winners Jock Armstrong and Hannah McKillop had struggled with their new spotlight setup on the Friday stages but still ended the day tied for second. On Saturday they were even more consistent than the rally leaders, never outside the top five times all day until stage ten where an issue with the exhaust overheating dropped them 15 seconds to the Fiesta in one go. They rounded the day out with a fourth fastest time to hold on to 2nd, 29 seconds down on the Fiesta.

Out to emulate his second place in the Snowman Rally was 63 Car Club driver John Wink.

With regular navigator Neil Shanks on Clerk of the Course duties, Wink had once again installed super-sub Will Atkins in the hotseat of his Hyundai i20.

Admitting to being too cautious in the dark they were seventh overnight. Saturday was much better, setting a string of top five times as they battled with good friends and rivals Michael Binnie and Claire Mole.

Binnie and Mole were competing in John Forrest’s Fiesta R5 for the first time. Fourth overnight they had been delayed when the engine mysteriously cut out on the first gravel stage of Saturday. After that they were on a charge, setting three fastest times as they chased after the Hyundai.

After 11 stages the two crews were separated by just one second at the finish with Wink and Atkins holding on to the final podium position. Wink joked at the finish that it was all under control, and he was “just managing the gap”. Another excellent result to back up his fantastic performance on the Snowman.

Peter Stewart and Harry Marchbank took their second two-wheel-drive win of the season in their Peugeot 208 R4. It was another good run with Peter getting happier with his driving as the event wore on. Peter reckoning it was the best rally they’ve had since moving into the 208.

The Peugeot finished 27 seconds clear of a titanic battle for second in two-wheel-drive between the Ford Escort MK2s of Paddy Munro and David O’Brien, and Dougal Brown and Lewis Rochford - Munro and O'Brien winning out by just one second.

Moray crew Brown and Rochford claimed their class runner-up spot and were 18th overall

John McIlwraith and Heather Grisedale made it 2 wins out of 2 in the Groundwater Lift Trucks Subaru Cup. They struggled a little with the dust in the dark and John got carried away with the handbrake in Cooper Park on the Saturday morning.

They also had some small issues getting the tyres switched on in the shorter stages but enjoyed a good battle with fellow Impreza crew Scott Mutch from Keith and Mosstodloch co-driver Greg McDonald who retired in stage 8.

There were a handful of Moray successes on home soil.

Aberlour's Michael Hendry navigated long-time driver Mark McCulloch to seventh overall and second in class.

Elgin co-driver John Shepheard helped Tain's Michael renton to 23rd, and second in class in an Impreza GC8.

Elgin's Robert Tonge steered his MG ZR to 51st place, second in class and just ahead of fellow Elgin driver Colin Patterson (Escort Mk2), Peter Garrow - with Karen Gordon navigating in an Escort - and Neil and Ian Philip in an Impreza in 58th.

A number of Moray crews failed to finish the rally.

Keith driver Damian Breckon was a non-starter while Elgin's Brett McKenzie's rally ended at stage 4.

Mike Grant and Graham Kelman retired on stage 6, Brian Watson and Sean Donnelly gave in to exhaust problems at the same stage as did Brian Ross with a fuel leak.

Elgin's Iain Thorburn, navigating for Inverness driver Keir Beaton, was stooped on stage 7 while Moray brothers Sandy and Ian Arbuthnott developed clutch trouble forcing them off on stage 9.