Images from the Wyedean Forest Rally

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Images from pre-season testing

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Becky dances on ice in preparation for rally season

Burton Pidsea rally driver Becky Kirvan continued her preparations for the 2011 season last weekend when she headed to Sweden to experience competition-speed driving on snow and ice for the first time at the Ice-Drive event.

The event was held on a frozen lake at Rörbäcksnäs just over the Norwegian border. The lake is frozen for around four months each year and the thick icy surface was a good test of rally driving technique.

2010 BTRDA Ladies Champion Kirvan had two days on the lake in a powerful four wheel drive Mitsubishi Evo rally car and she spent the time honing her driving skills in the extremely difficult conditions. Despite never having driven a four wheel drive vehicle before Kirvan quickly adapted to the both the car and the conditions.

"The ice was a great place to refine my driving technique as every input is massively exaggerated," said Kirvan. "You have to drive with a lot of control and anticipate precisely what the car is going to do, if you fail to do that then you are guaranteed to spin off the course."

"We were using Scandinavian winter road tyres on the car rather than studded rally tyres but even so, the grip was phenomenal considering we were basically driving on a giant ice rink! It was still extremely hard work keeping the car under control as we went quicker though."

With darkness falling at around 4pm each day, Kirvan also took the opportunity to practice some night driving as temperatures dropped to –17 degrees.

"It was a fantastic experience and a steep learning curve for me but I think it was very worthwhile and it has definitely helped me refine my rally driving skills which I can now transfer to driving my own Ford Fiesta ST this season."

Kirvan is hoping to secure support to enable her to compete in the British Rally Championship, starting with the Bulldog Rally in early April. To get involved with the Becky Kirvan Rallying team and to see the marketing opportunities available to team supporters please visit http://www.beckykirvan.co.uk/.

Cristofaro wins Rising Stars competition

Teenage rally driver Nick Cristofaro has continued his good start to 2011 by being one of four winners of the Motorsport News/Millers Oils Rising Stars competition.

The competition, which aims to help young up and coming drivers achieve their goals and ambitions in the motorsport world will see Cristofaro receive a support package from Millers Oils which includes various products and technical support for his 2011 rally season.

“I’m delighted to be one of the four drivers chosen in the competition, the backing of Millers Oils will undoubtedly be a big help as I step up to the British Rally Championship this year,” said Cristofaro.

Millers Oils join TEG Sport, Pirelli, Genpower UK and Nicky Grist in supporting Cristofaro’s rally season, a season which will see him competing all over the UK in both the British Rally Championship and, if sufficient funding can be obtained, the BTRDA championship.

Cristofaro has put an entry in for next weekend’s Wyedean rally, the opening round of the BTRDA season, but at present he is on the reserve list and so he will have to wait to see if he gets a run on the Chepstow-based event.

He is also planning a test session in his Ford Fiesta ST prior to the Wyedean as he continues to develop his understanding of the new car in advance of the British Rally Championship kicking off at the end of the month.

Please visit http://www.nickcristofaro.co.uk/ for further information.

Image courtesy Chris Ponsford

Wright aiming for podium finish in Wyedean rally season opener

Bentham’s David Wright will start his rally season next weekend when he contests the opening round of the national BTRDA championship, the Wyedean Forest rally.

2009 champion Wright and co-driver Michael Wilkinson will be using a new car this year, a lighter and more powerful Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9 prepared by Giles Philips Motorsport. The car was driven for the first time on gravel at a recent test and Wright was very pleased with the performance.

“We took the car to the Sweet Lamb test venue to try it on gravel and it was a very productive day,” said Wright. “We did a lot of work on the suspension set up and I think we’re ready for the Wyedean”.

“I had a disappointing finish last year on the event so I’m aiming to be in the top three of the leaderboard this year although we’re up against some tough competition.”

The Chepstow based rally will be fought over seven stages with six of them in the Forest of Dean. A capacity 180 car entry will start from Chepstow racecourse on Saturday morning with Wright starting at car 9 in his Kumho Tyres, Proflex, Drenth and Grove Hill Garage backed machine.

After the Wyedean Wright is hoping to contest the full BTRDA championship with the possibility of a couple of events in Scotland.