FOR most of the year the peace and tranquility of the forests surrounding Inverness is immaculately preserved, save perhaps for the guttural calls of an amorous stag during the deer rutting season. In the early weeks of February however, that serenity is replaced by the roar of engines as the Snowman Rally revs into gear.
The traditional opening event on the Scottish Rally Championship calendar, the Snowman was this year won by Fort Augustus man, Reary Mackay, amid severe weather conditions which saw the event more than live up to it's name.
"I spent the whole day
snowploughing the stages for the guys coming behind me," bemoaned championship contender David Bogie after being one of the first drivers to take to a course largely buried by the heavy snowfall large parts of Britain have had to endure in the past fortnight.
While normally a treacherous enough endeavour, rallying in the midst of a Scottish winter can seem – to neutral observers at any rate – an exercise in lunacy.
Most years wet weather makes the course exceedingly slippery, however this year's winter wonderland made the going particularly dangerous for drivers and spectators alike and organisers were forced to cancel the final five mile stage at Glenurquhart due to conditions being so bad.
Bearing all this in mind, the appeal of standing at a roadside whilst rally cars skid past at 100 miles per hour may be hard to fathom, yet, the event is one of the biggest draws in the Highlands with around 20,000 spectators every year happy to risk life and limb in order to catch a glimpse of the dirt-spattered racing machines.
The appeal could be in the aesthetics. The backdrop to the Snowman is some of the most stunning natural scenery Scotland has to offer with the 115 road miles of the course winding it's way from the outskirts of Inverness, across to the Black Isle and right down past Loch Ness.
And of course for genuine rally enthusiast the competition is fierce. Ever since it's introduction in 1955, the Snowman rally has been a key feature in the Scottish rallying calendar with many great UK names taking part in the event at one time or another.
Noteable winners of the rally include Andrew Cowan(1967), Roger Clark(1973) and Pentii Airikkala (1976) while the Scottish Rally Championship itself has produced drivers of the calibre of former world champions Colin McRae and Louise Aitken-Walker and British champ Alister McRae.
This year over 130 cars registered to take part proving the event, sponsored by the Arnold Clark group and the Thistle Hotel, continues to go from strength to strength.
The Thistle Hotel in Inverness is also the setting for the legendary after rally party which offers race-goers the chance to warm up with a dram or two and take a spin of a different sort, on the dance floor.
"To be honest it was an achievement just to get the car to the end of each stage," added driver Bogie at the end. Bearing in mind the conditions, there's little doubt the half-frozen spectators deserve a clap on the back as well.
