After missing the opening round of the 2005 Fiat Rally Cup, reigning champion Tom Metcalfe will join Shaun Woffinden on this weekend’s RSAC Scottish Rally.

Local lad Metcalfe turned 21 on the day he won the 2004 Fiat Stilo Rally Cup, but illness prevented him from starting the defence of his title on the Pirelli International Rally. He is joined in Scotland by Howard Pridmore who had two wins in 2004 while Woffinden has Inbal Edry to guide him through the classic Scottish forests.

Woffinden won the opening round and scored second in the British Rally Championship Formula 2000 Championship, a position he was happy with in Carlisle. “The Renault is going very well,” he commented, “and once Robbie (Dale) gets the hang of it, we’ll have to push hard to keep up.” He continued, “As long as we focus on the battle with Tom in Scotland, the times will come and hopefully we can both get in front of the other F2000 cars.”

The Scottish celebrates its 60th anniversary in 2005 and the stages are familiar ones to rally fans. Based in Dumfries, the event starts on Friday evening at 7.30pm with two runs of the nearby Heathhall spectator stage. The adjacent service area is visited late in the evening after a further two runs of Ae, a total of just 15 stage miles. The rally base moves to Baldoon airfield to the South of Newton Stewart on Saturday with stages like Clatteringshaws, Glentrool and Black Loch.