Hi All,
Gareth and I were in Scotland at the weekend, taking part in the RSAC Scottish Rally, based in Dumfries. It was the fouth round of the Kick Energy Fiesta Sport Trophy. It was our first rally on gravel in a long time, and a return to organizers pacenotes. The day started of very slowly. We dropped 15 seconds to Kris Hall on stage one, and were on the backfoot already. I found the pacenotes very hard to adapt to and they were a lot different than my own. However we hit back with a fastest time on stage 2, the spectator stage at Heathall, allbeit by only one second. On stage 3 another fastest time, this time by two second. We headed to stage 3 with the intentions of taking back a good chunk of time. A crippled car pulled out in front of us in the stage, and because of the extremely bad dust, we were held up for miles. We lost around 35 seconds, and plunging us down to fifth. We returned to service, and a new set of front tires, and the plan of action was to go like hell on the last two stages to try and claw back the lost time, and at least get into 2nd. We were 22 seconds behind Matt Edwards in second, going into the penultamite stage, and with a scorching time, fastest by 9 seconds, and beating Matt by 20, it left us with very little left to do on the last stage. A time 14 seconds clear of Edwards, put us well into second place, a job well done. We were very happy with the day, and I was happy with my pace. If only we weren't caught behind the slower car, perhaps things may have worked out differently.
We have a weekend off this weekend, but we return to tarmac the following weekend on the dreaded Isle of Man International Rally. This is a round of the Kick Energy Fiesta Sport Trophy UK series, the British Rally Championship, and also the Irish Tarmac Championship, so a lot is at steak. Tarmac has been our strongpoint in recent times so hopefully it will be a good points haul from there.
Also this week, we have confirmed to go to Rally Finland WRC, as it is a round of the Fiesta Sport Trophy International. It's a great boost for me, and I cannot wait to see the classic stages around Jyväskylä, and re-commencing my battle for the FSTi crown.
In the mean time, fitness is top priority, so that's were my efforts will be drawn for the next week or two until the Isle of Man.
Please come back for more updates
Craig
Tuesday 30 June 2009
Tuesday 23 June 2009
The winning streak continues!
Hi everyone,
Apologies for the delay in updating my blog, it's been a busy few weeks.
Since I last updated, I have taken part in three rallys. The first of the trio, was the Jim Clark memorial rally, in Kelso, Scotland. It was my first tarmac rally in Britain and it was a great experience. It was not a round of the Fiesta Sport Trophy, but was a round of the BRC. The Friday stages included two stages in full darkness, the first time I had ever driven in darkness. It was a great experience, and we showed some good speed. However on day two, we broke a driveshaft, and were forced to retire. However I was happy with my pace on day two, as we had been keeping an eye on Kris Hall's times, and we beat him on most of the stages that day, and as Kris is one of my main rivals in the Fiesta series, it was a promising result.
From there, we were invited to take part in the Fiesta shootout at the rally show at Chatsworth. This was a head to head knockout competition, with five of the other top FST UK competitors. It was a great event, and I had lots of fun in the process. We were fastest on every stage, and won the event by 10 seconds! The prize for this win was a drive in the new Fiesta R2 car the next day, as well as a passenger ride with Mikko Hirvonen. The R2 car is the car that will replace the ST car that I drive presently. It was an extremely positive spin in the car, and I enjoyed it thoroughly.
At the weekend (20th June) me and stand in co-driver Kirsty Riddick, competed in the Donegal International Rally, as part of the Fiesta Sport Trophy Ireland. It was a great event with classic stages. The day started off wet, I took the first few corners easy, and felt what the grip level was like. It was quite abraisive, and I was happy to push. We recorded a time 8 seconds clear of everyone. A great start. SS2 was cancelled and we headed straight to service. At this stage it had dried out, and we wen't back out to tackle the same two stages again. We were fastest on SS4 again, this time by 2 seconds to Mark Donnelly. SS5 was our best of the rally. We really pushed the car to its limit and recorded a time 12 seconds clear of everyone, and enough of a cushion if anything had gone wrong. A return to service saw a change in game plan. We had a 22 second lead, and the mindframe going out of service was to maintain that. SS5 was a run up the daunting Knockalla stage. We were second fastest, losing only .5 of a second to Shane Buckley. More importantly, this stage saw the demise of our championship rival Mark Donnelly with gearbox troubles. SS6 was another clean run, dropping 6 seconds to Buckley. We left service for SS7, where again we kept our noses clean, dropping minimal time, followed by a fastest time on the final stage to take our 6th Fiesta Sport Trophy win in a row! I was very happy with the weekend. Both Kirsty and I worked hard for the win, and I am hoping to keep this run of recent sucess going in the events to come.
This weekend, sees Gareth return to the co-drivers seat, and a return to gravel, at the Scottish stages rally, based in Dumfries. I am looking forward to getting back onto the loose, as it's been a while. We are currently fourth in the Fiesta Sport Trophy after a non- finish on the Malcolm Wilson rally. We need to win this weekend to get the title on track.
Please keep an eye here over the weekend, I will try and update you as events unfold in Dumfries.
Bye for now
Craig
Apologies for the delay in updating my blog, it's been a busy few weeks.
Since I last updated, I have taken part in three rallys. The first of the trio, was the Jim Clark memorial rally, in Kelso, Scotland. It was my first tarmac rally in Britain and it was a great experience. It was not a round of the Fiesta Sport Trophy, but was a round of the BRC. The Friday stages included two stages in full darkness, the first time I had ever driven in darkness. It was a great experience, and we showed some good speed. However on day two, we broke a driveshaft, and were forced to retire. However I was happy with my pace on day two, as we had been keeping an eye on Kris Hall's times, and we beat him on most of the stages that day, and as Kris is one of my main rivals in the Fiesta series, it was a promising result.
From there, we were invited to take part in the Fiesta shootout at the rally show at Chatsworth. This was a head to head knockout competition, with five of the other top FST UK competitors. It was a great event, and I had lots of fun in the process. We were fastest on every stage, and won the event by 10 seconds! The prize for this win was a drive in the new Fiesta R2 car the next day, as well as a passenger ride with Mikko Hirvonen. The R2 car is the car that will replace the ST car that I drive presently. It was an extremely positive spin in the car, and I enjoyed it thoroughly.
At the weekend (20th June) me and stand in co-driver Kirsty Riddick, competed in the Donegal International Rally, as part of the Fiesta Sport Trophy Ireland. It was a great event with classic stages. The day started off wet, I took the first few corners easy, and felt what the grip level was like. It was quite abraisive, and I was happy to push. We recorded a time 8 seconds clear of everyone. A great start. SS2 was cancelled and we headed straight to service. At this stage it had dried out, and we wen't back out to tackle the same two stages again. We were fastest on SS4 again, this time by 2 seconds to Mark Donnelly. SS5 was our best of the rally. We really pushed the car to its limit and recorded a time 12 seconds clear of everyone, and enough of a cushion if anything had gone wrong. A return to service saw a change in game plan. We had a 22 second lead, and the mindframe going out of service was to maintain that. SS5 was a run up the daunting Knockalla stage. We were second fastest, losing only .5 of a second to Shane Buckley. More importantly, this stage saw the demise of our championship rival Mark Donnelly with gearbox troubles. SS6 was another clean run, dropping 6 seconds to Buckley. We left service for SS7, where again we kept our noses clean, dropping minimal time, followed by a fastest time on the final stage to take our 6th Fiesta Sport Trophy win in a row! I was very happy with the weekend. Both Kirsty and I worked hard for the win, and I am hoping to keep this run of recent sucess going in the events to come.
This weekend, sees Gareth return to the co-drivers seat, and a return to gravel, at the Scottish stages rally, based in Dumfries. I am looking forward to getting back onto the loose, as it's been a while. We are currently fourth in the Fiesta Sport Trophy after a non- finish on the Malcolm Wilson rally. We need to win this weekend to get the title on track.
Please keep an eye here over the weekend, I will try and update you as events unfold in Dumfries.
Bye for now
Craig
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