Sunday 17 April 2011

Harry happy with success on Somerset rally

Bangor on Dee's Harry Morgan got his rally season back on track on last weekend's Somerset Stages event when he claimed an excellent third in the RF1.0 class after ten challenging stages.

Driving his 1.0 litre Nissan Micra Morgan was keen to get a good result after a broken distributor forced him to retire from his last event. The event kicked off with the short Timberscombe stage near Minehead and Morgan was immediately on the pace, setting third fastest time in the class. Forest stages in Croydon, Chargot and Knowle followed and Morgan continued his good form to hold his third place.

"We got off to a good start, the stages were very dusty but there were some damp patches under the trees so we had to take care," said Morgan. "I kept it clean and tidy though and I was pleased to be setting times quicker than some of the crews in the bigger-engined classes."

The rally then headed to the Porlock Hill stage which presented Morgan with a new challenge as the surface was tarmac rather than the forest track he is used to. Despite his lack of experience Morgan set competitive times on both the Porlock tests. The event finished with four further forest stages and Morgan had a troublefree run to finish in third.

"Porlock was fantastic fun, I have never competed on tarmac before but I really enjoyed it and I definitely want to do some more tarmac rallying in the future. I'm delighted with the result, we needed a good finish after our disappointment on the previous event and we've managed to achieve that. Thanks to my co-driver James Ford who was spot on with the pacenotes all day and also to my Dad for servicing."

The result sees Morgan lie third in the RF1.0 class championship leaderboard and he is also second in the Rally First Junior Driver championship. He will continue his championship challenge on the Plain rally in May. Please visit www.harryrally.co.uk for all the latest news and pictures.

Image courtesy Simon Clarke