Wright looking to get rally season off to flying start

Bentham rally driver David Wright will start his rally season next weekend when he contests round two of the BTRDA rally championship, the Malcolm Wilson rally.

Having sold the Mitsubishi Evo 9 he had used for the last three years Wright was hoping to debut his new Ford Focus WRC on the Cumbrian event but the car is awaiting engine parts so a back-up plan has been put into action.

“The pistons for the Focus are still in America with Cosworth so we’ve had to sort another car to contest the Malcolm Wilson rally,” said Wright. “We’ve got the Mitsubishi Evo 9 that we won the 2009 BTRDA title in. It’s taken a lot of work but we’ve managed to get it into pretty much the same specification as the car we used last year.”

“We’ll struggle to match the pace of the world rally class cars but we’ll be pushing hard in what are some of my favourite stages in rallying and hopefully we can target a podium finish. We’re planning to test the car ahead of the rally which should iron out any problems.”

The Evo will be supported by Kumho Tyres, Drenth, Grove Hill Garage, GPM and Owen Developments.

The Malcolm Wilson rally starts from Cockermouth on Saturday morning and the crews will be tested over some of the classic Lake District stages including Comb, Wythop and Grizedale.

Another successful year for Rally2Raise

The Rally2Raise motorsport team had another successful year in 2013 when it raised over £1,400 for the Nystagmus Network and contested four rounds of the Scottish Rally Championship (SRC).

The team was formed in late 2011 with the aim of raising funds and awareness for charities. The first full year of the project saw over £2,500 raised for four charitable causes. For 2013 the team decided to continue supporting one of those causes, the Nystagmus Network. Nystagmus is a presently incurable eye condition which Rally2Raise founder Rachel Clark’s son suffers from so it is a cause particularly close to her heart.

The team’s season started with the Saltire Classic rally in March. The organisers, the Saltire Rally Club, supported Rally2Raise in 2012 and they kindly continued their support this year. Rachel drove the Rally2Raise Nissan Micra as course car on the event with Gary Simpson making his debut in the navigator’s seat. Despite severe exhaust manifold problems they managed to get to the finish where plenty of cash was raised with a raffle.

Following the Saltire rally the hunt was on for sponsorship to enable the team to run in selected Scottish Rally Championship rounds. Thanks to the support of E.Watson and Son, BSW Ltd Contracting Services, Pirelli, AW Motorsport, McPherson Document Solutions, Charles Derby Ecosse, San Juan Services and Halo Lettings, Rachel and co-driver Katherine Begg were able to enter the Granite City rally in April. A strong run on the events first two stages was sadly ended when the car clipped a bridge and bent the rear beam, forcing retirement.

The team’s next event was the Scottish rally in Dumfries. With Katherine suffering an illness Caroline Lodge took over on the pacenotes. A brilliant performance saw Rachel presented with the trophy for being the fastest lady driver at the events ceremonial finish in the town centre in front of a large crowd of spectators.

Following the Scottish the team contested the Elgin-based Speyside Stages rally. Although the car suffered major gearbox problems Rachel brought it home for another good result.

The team’s final event of the year was the Merrick Stages which used the classic Scottish rally stages around Newton Stewart. The season was rounded off in great style with a second in class finish.

Fundraising events, including a virtual navigational rally, continued after the Merrick and thanks to the generosity of those who supported the project the total raised was over £1,400.

“It has been another good year for Rally2Raise,” said Rachel. “The rally community has once again been hugely generous in supporting us and I am very happy that we’ve managed to raise almost £4,000 for charity in two years as well as raising awareness of lesser known causes such as the Nystagmus Network.”

“Thanks to the amazing help given to us by our sponsors we were able to contest four Scottish Rally Championship events and I’m pleased with how those went. It’s difficult trying to compete with cars that have two or three times the power of our Micra has but it was great fun trying and we got some good results.”

“We’re planning to continue with Rally2Raise in 2014 but we’ll have to see how the rally budget goes before deciding whether to compete on any SRC events. The Saltire Rally Club have kindly invited us to be course car on the Saltire Classic event again in March though so we'll definitely be doing one rally.”

“I’d like to thank our sponsors whose support enabled us to contest the events and also everyone who has donated money and taken part in our fundraising activities.”

For more information please visit www.rally2raise.co.uk or www.facebook.com/rally2raise.

Brown ends rally season on a Manx high

 

Rochdale rally driver Steve Brown rounded off his season with a fine performance on the Pokerstars rally on the Isle of Man last month. He finished 16^th overall and first in class in his 1300cc Nissan Micra.

From a start position of 30 Brown made good progress on the opening day of the event to lie in 25^th overall and 4^th in class at the overnight halt. A storming performance in the Mintex Racing, Fuchs Titan Race, 710 Oil's, PIAA, Sabelt UK and Six 80 Ltd Aviation Asset Management-backed Micra on day two saw him take the class win as well as moving up to 16^th on the overall leaderboard.

“After a strong run on the Rally Isle of Man in September I decided to return to the island for the Pokerstars,” said Brown. “It’s a fantastic place for rallying, the stages are a great challenge and to come away with a class win rounded off the season perfectly.”

“We’ve had a mixed year as far as the MSA Tarmac championship goes but we had two good results on the Tour of Epynt and the Jim Clark National so I’m happy with that. The two non-championship Isle of Man events went very well and I’m delighted with the results we achieved on them.”

“It has been a good learning year and hopefully we can put the experience to good use next season. Thank you to all my sponsors for their support.”

Brown will have a new Micra ready for 2014 but he has yet to finalise his plans for competing.

“I think I’ll be doing a few of the Tarmac championship rounds in the new car but the first few events will be used to develop the car.”

“I will be keeping the existing Micra too and that will be rebuilt over the winter. If the budget allows I hope to return to the Isle of Man with it to try and further improve my times there.”

Please visit www.facebook.com/stevebrownrallying for more information.

Sykes storms to second in class on Rally GB National

Stourbridge’s Richard Sykes ended his rally season in fine style when he followed in the wheel tracks of the best drivers in the world to take second in class on the Rally GB National event after three tough days of competition.

The rally used the same stages as Britain’s World Rally Championship round so it was a unique opportunity to compare times with the 2013 World Rally Champion.

Day 1 saw Sykes and co-driver Jonathan Boucard tackle the Hafren, Myherin and Sweet Lamb stages and a brilliant performance meant he led his class at going into the second day in his Bathams Brewery, Boroughbridge Marina, Silverstone Tyres and G I Sykes Ltd-supported Citroën C2 R2 Max.

“The opening day went really well, we had no problems and set some great times to head the class although we were only 7 seconds ahead of Phil McVay in second,” said Sykes. “It was my first time with Jonathan in the co-driver’s seat but we quickly gelled. Emma Morrison, who sat with me on the last two BRC Challenge events, was co-driving for Phil which was slightly surreal – we had gone from being a team to rivals!”

The battle between Sykes and McVay continued on day two with McVay taking the lead as Sykes hit a bale on a chicane, damaging the side of his car and losing a few seconds. More time was lost in the Kimble Park stage. Sykes had been due to start the stage in daylight and had not fitted spotlights but delays on the rally meant he did the stage in the dark and was hampered by only having the normal car headlights.

“We did a DVD recce of the stages and the chicanes were not built when the DVD was produced so we didn’t know how tight they were. The first one was really tight and it caught me out. The rear side window got smashed and the bodywork bent but we were able to carry on although the time loss meant Phil, who was going really well, passed us for the lead.”

“Having to do Kimble Park on the standard lights lost us around 11 seconds in just over a mile as it was a tricky tight very dark stage, the type you only loose a rally on not win one.”

A fine performance on day three meant that Sykes ended up just 8.7 seconds behind McVay at the event finish and he also finished 13^th overall.

“The final day was really good, we had a clear run and were pushing hard to keep the pressure on the class leader. It’s a little disappointing that we couldn’t do enough to get the class win, we paid a heavy price for those 11 seconds lost in Kimble Park. I am more than happy with second though and I’m delighted with 13^th overall out of 55 finishers considering we were competing against 300bhp 4 wheel drive cars in our little 170bhp 2 wheel drive C2.”

"Jonathan did an excellent job and by the third day we were well on it. The event has left us totally elated and I can’t wait for next year now.”

“I’m hoping to contest the BRC Challenge again in 2014 but I may have a new car. The current one will be for sale shortly, if it sells then we’ll be out in something different next year. Thank you to all my sponsors for their support this year.”

Image courtesy Dave Johnson

Images from the Roger Albert Clark Rally

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