Vintage rally goes virtual as car enthusiasts are urged to get involved
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Members of Caithness and Sutherland Vintage and Classic Vehicle Club are staging a virtual rally to help make up for the disappointment of having to cancel their popular annual showpiece at John O'Groats.
The club celebrated its 50th anniversary last June with a bumper turnout, but the 2020 rally is one of many community events that have fallen by the wayside because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Undeterred, the club says its virtual rally via Facebook will give members something to focus on. Many vehicle enthusiasts have responded already and others are being urged to take part, with five classes to choose from.
Club chairman Kevin Sutherland explained: "The club took the decision to cancel the annual vintage and classic vehicle rally at John O'Groats due to the pandemic and restrictions. However, some members decided we could have a rally using social media.
"We set up a new post on our Facebook page indicating we were planning a virtual rally, and this generated a lot of interest from users and followers."
The club's Facebook administrator Ryan Cameron set up five vehicle classes for entries to the virtual rally:
- Class A – Cars pre-1950
- Class B – Cars post-1951
- Class C – Motorcycles pre-1950
- Class D – Motorcycles post-1951
- Class E – Commercial, agricultural and other vehicles
Those wishing to enter can load up a comment in the class post with some brief details of the vehicle, make, type and year along with a photo. The comment within the post with most likes by 5pm on Sunday, June 14, will be judged to be the class winner.
Kevin added: “It's such a great pity the event was cancelled, but we had no option. The new committee had been well under way with the arrangements, but the Covid 19 situation made it unsafe to hold an event where crowds of 2000 might gather from all over Scotland.
"The virtual rally is a wee bit of fun giving enthusiasts something to look over and join in. It will never replace the John O'Groats rally, but it is generating a great deal of interest from local enthusiasts and others from further afield."
