Dumfries High School pupils Lewis Haining, above, and Alice Paterson, both 15, travelled to the disused air base at RM Condor in Arbroath, on the start of a very challenging day for both crews.
Lewis in a Toyota Aygo started the eight mile first stage with high hopes, but the tar and broken concrete roads had other ideas.
A spin and an overshoot on stage one not only resulted in a loss of time, but also a loss of his front bumper.
The second stage was better and saw Lewis tied with the Suzuki Alto of Aberdeen’s Johnnie McKay for third place, a battle that would rage on all day as the pair went into the last stage tied on times.
Lewis came round a tight corner on the last eight miler, however, and faced a tyre in the middle of the road, kicked up by the car in front.
He had no option but to run over it, and it became wedged under the car’s sump guard refusing to budge, meaning that Johnnie took the final podium position from a disappointed Lewis by seven seconds.
Alice in a Peugeot 107 had a bad start to the day as the leg fell off her glasses before the first stage, resulting in her driving stage one and two half blind before they were put back together.
She then had a very quick start to the event passing two cars on the first two stages, but there was a hold up of an hour before stage three, causing the car to overheat, putting the engine down on power.
Over the next four stages, the engine was getting more and more reluctant to start, and began blowing blue smoke out the exhaust as Alice battled up and down the old runways.
She nursed her sick car home to 8th overall however, and picked up some valuable points.
Both crews are looking forward to the next round of the J1000 ECOSSE Challenge at Kames, Muirkirk on May 7.
