Andy Baillie is a hard man to describe. This is not due to the fact that he is very Scottish and as such speaks with an accent that almost noone south of Carlisle can understand. He described himself as "retired, just doing my own thing". I believe this to be a slight understatement. He is the Scottish importer for Redline products (Redline make fluids for vehicles e.g. Octane Booster, Injector cleaner, Water "wetter" - work that one out !) and also Scottish importer for Air Flow products ( Battery conditioners, Car "Bubbles" etc ) & I hear is still actively involved in a couple of car accessory shops. That would be enough for most people, but not for Andy. He is also a qualified racing instructor & spends some of his days being driven round various UK race tracks by the general public. ( A very brave man I feel ).
Andy's main interest lies however in Road rallies and he is currently building a frogeye for this purpose.
He only drove with us for one year in 2000 & from the begining stated that he wanted to concentrate on his Frogeye/rallying. However in this brief year he & his wife ,Alison, made a large impression on the FISC guys & they were always welcome guests to any conversation. True to their characters he and Alison attended every race that year, making short european holidays of each outing. ( I believe they even had to get passports for the first times in their lives to do this !).
Andy has been involved in various forms of motorsport for well over 20 years now & He told me a story of his active road rallying days in a frogeye in snowy conditions. Apparently he managed to break a halfshaft ( Can't imagine that !) & had the rear end of the car up in the air checking it out, when a member of the public drove past. He stopped & asked what the problem was, then explained that he lived locally, had a frogeye in his garage & Andy was welcome to borrow the halfshaft. Andy was taken to the garage, the halfshaft was removed. Andy was then driven back to his rallycar by the halfshaft owners wife & repaired the car at the roadside. Apparantley the worst thing was looking for the wheel nuts which had been warm & had melted their way through the snow. He finished the rally & returned the halfshaft.
Other interests ( there are more ??) in Andy's life are his MG TD & Vellocette motorcycle
Andy would like to thank Alison for looking after the "inner man". But judging by his age, appearance & activities she seems to be doing a good job of the "outer man" as well !