Rallying: Meeke stripped of Rally of Scotland after part fails test

Published on Friday 27 November 2009 08:41

FIVE days after he was drenched in champagne and torrential rain as he celebrated on the Esplanade of Stirling Castle, Dungannon's Kris Meeke has been excluded from the inaugural Rally of Scotland results.

Hours after 30-year-old Meeke and the thousands of spectators had celebrated what had been believed as being the result of the final round of the Intercontinental Rally Championship at the weekend, the Irishman's Peugeot 207 S2000 was found to have a suspect part which was underweight.

Immediately the result of the rally, which had been hailed as a terrific success, was thrown into doubt. The questionable part, the front subframe of his car, was subsequently weighed three times. Each time, a different weight was registered. In the end, the chief scrutineer ordered the part be weighed at a Government Weights & Measures Office.

This was carried out in Scotland and the result confirmed the part was below the minimum weight of 9.68kg and outwith the -2 per cent permissible margin.

As a result, Meeke and his Peugeot were excluded from the results, handing the victory to the Skoda of Darlington's Guy Wilks. Lanark's Alister McRae was promoted to second in his Proton, with Belfast's Jonny Greer third.

Meeke's exclusion though does not affect his or Peugeot's IRC titles as these were sealed on the penultimate round in Italy.

"Of course it's unfortunate," a Peugeot spokesman said. "But we fully accept the stewards' decision."

So marginal was the difference that it would not have improved the performance of the car.