EAST Lancashire’s best known rally co-driver, Ian Grindrod, is set to renew his famous partnership with legendary ‘Flying Scotsman’ Jimmy McRae.

In the 80s the McRae/Grindrod combination was revered as one of the most successful in rallying history after wining the British Rally Championship on no fewer than three occasions.

Sadly though for local rally fans, their reunion is not taking place on British soil as they are about to head off to the Caribbean to compete in the Barbados Historic Rally Carnival in a Porsche 911.

Having tackled last year’s inaugural event and finishing second, McRae has recruited his former partner in a bid to go one place better this time around, reviving memories of their previous exploits that have become rally folklore.

Grindrod remembers one incident, from the 1982 Welsh Rally, particularly well.

They were carrying too much speed into a left-hand bend on the notorious Epynt Military Ranges and having dropped a wheel on to the grass their Opel Ascona 400 rolled into a ditch, then went end-over-end twice, finishing up sliding along the ditch on its roof.

As Grindrod recalls: “My full-face crash helmet seemed to scoop up half of south Wales in its aperture!

“When we finally came to a stop, still upside down, I managed to scramble out of my door and was crawling around on the grass.

“I could hear Jim shouting to the quickly gathering spectators, ‘I’ve blinded him, I’ve blinded him!’. And to all those gathered around, that’s just what it must have seemed, with me scrabbling about on the grass with the front of my helmet full of bits of scenery.

“‘It’s OK,’ I shouted back. ‘I’m looking for my fags; they must be out here somewhere!’.

“He never forgave me for that!”

The 2011 Barbados Historic Rally Carnival runs from July 14 to 26.