Hi all,
Me and Gareth competed in the Pirelli International rally at the weekend. The rally started on Friday evening, with two stages. We were caught in Kris Halls dust, after he sustained a puncture, and lost some time, however we pushed hard on stage 2, and ended the day with a 6 second lead in the Fiesta's, and 13th overall.
Saturday started off very slowly, we were still building our confidence after last weekends off in the Circuit of Ireland. our lead was cut down to as little as 2 seconds, but we had enough in reserve to build our lead back up to 15 seconds. After SS6, the Fiesta Sport Trophy rally finished, which we had won! We had no time to dwell, as we were straight back out onto the stages for the second loop. However a devastating fire for Guy Wilks caused SS8, SS9, ans SS10 cancelled for the international rally.
At this point, we were 11th overall, and only 1 second ahead of Marty McCormack for top two wheel drive honours. We started SS11, in high hopes of stepping the pace up a notch or two, to fend off Marty, which we did so. We were 20 seconds faster on SS11, and 8 seconds on SS12, despite getting caught in Rob Swann's dust as we were starting to catch him. We were indeed 8th quickest overall on the last stage!
This signalled the end of the rally, and when all the times were added, we finished 10th overall, 1st two wheel drive, 1st in class R3, coupled with the Fiesta Sport Trophy win early in the day.
We returned to Carlisle racecourse, where we had our champagne celebrations.
However this was not the end. I was then approached by Mr BRC, Mark Taylor, and told there was a further presentation to be made to me. I was the Pirelli Star Driver for the day! This means I got to wear the coveted yellow jersey, and recieve automatic nomination for the Pirelli Star driver shootout at the end of the year for a fully funded drive in a Group N car in the British Rally Championship! Good news or what!
I was chuffed, and it was the end of my epic four week journey. A win in the Fiesta Sport Trophy Intenational, the the Irish series, and now the UK series, a feat that has never been done before, let alone one week after the other.
I have a break this weekend (for a change!), so I will be hoping to get back on top of my training again, and preparing myself for the next rally, the Rally of the Lakes in two weeks time.
In the mean time, please continue to visit the website for more updates and news.
See you soon
Craig
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