Images from BCCC Walters

 

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Images from the Mull Rally

 

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Sykes aiming to be back on track in Yorkshire

 

Stourbridge rally driver Richard Sykes is aiming to put the misfortune he experienced on his last event behind him when he contests the Trackrod Challenge rally in Yorkshire next weekend, the latest round of the BRC Challenge championship.

 

Sykes and co-driver Simon Taylor crashed out of the Ulster Challenge rally in dramatic style last month in their Bathams Brewery, Boroughbridge Marina, Silverstone Tyres and G I Sykes Ltd-supported Citroën C2 R2 Max. Injuries sustained in the crash have meant that Taylor is unable to compete with Sykes on the Trackrod.

 

“Unfortunately Simon received a back injury in the crash so he has been advised not to compete,” said Sykes. “I have drafted in Emma Morrison who co-drove for my championship rival Simon Moore last year. We have competed together before and she is very organised and motivated and no doubt looking forward to a competitive run.”

 

“It is still mathematically possible for us to retain our BRC Challenge title but we’re relying on other drivers retiring which is unlikely to happen. We’ll be trying our best to win both in Yorkshire and in the final round in Bournemouth though.”

 

“Our team of Simon Hawthorne and Martin Billings have worked tirelessly repairing the car after Ulster and, with help from Charles Hurst, they’ve done a fantastic job and it looks as good as new.”

 

“The Yorkshire stages have a lot of long straights which will be a disadvantage for us but I’ll be trying as hard as I can to get the win. We do two night stages on Friday which will be a real challenge and 100% concentration will be needed to get a good result. I won the event in 2007 and 2008 but since then it’s been cruel to us so we need to break that run of bad luck.”

 

As well as the Friday night stages the BRC Challenge crews will contest three stages in the classic rallying territory of North Yorkshire on Saturday morning.

Rodgers aiming to end rally season on a high

 

Rally driver Tim Rodgers will contest his third and final event of the year next weekend when he contests the Trackrod Challenge rally in Yorkshire.

 

The event is a round of the BRC Challenge championship and Rodgers is hoping to take on the championship leaders on what is his home event, with the aim being a top three finish.

 

Rodgers, from Burton upon Stather, was in second place on his last event, the Scottish Challenge rally, in June. Sadly he put his Rally4Real.com Ford Fiesta ST off the road one mile from the end of the event when he had to avoid a crew who had rolled their car and partially blocked the stage.

 

"The ending of our Scottish Challenge rally was hard to take," said Rodgers. "We had been doing really well, beating all but one of the regular championship crews and we were all set for a brilliant result. There was nothing I could do though, I had a choice of hitting the car that had rolled or trying to avoid it by driving into a ditch at the side of the road. Unfortunately the car hit a log in the ditch and our rally was over."

 

"I like the Yorkshire stages and I'm confident we will have the pace to be near the top of the leaderboard.  I'll be happy if we can get a top three finish, that will go some way to making up for the disappointment of the Scottish."

 

The rally starts on Friday evening with two stages in the dark. The crews will do a further three stages on Saturday morning with the event finishing early in the afternoon.

Class podium for Brown on Manx Internatio​nal rally

 

Rochdale rally driver Steve Brown achieved an excellent result on last week’s Manx International rally when he finished third in class and 25^th overall in his Mintex Racing, Fuchs Titan Race, 710 Oil's, PIAA and Sabelt UK-backed Nissan Micra 1300.

The rally started on Thursday night with six stages in atrocious conditions on the Isle of Man’s closed public roads. Heavy rain meant the roads were extremely slippery and the crews were not helped by thick mist on many of the stages. Despite the weather Brown guided the Micra to 4^th in class and 39^th overall at the overnight halt.

Day two had a punishing schedule of 13 stages including two runs of the hugely popular stage through the centre of Castletown. With conditions much improved from day one Brown put in a strong performance to move up to third in class and 31^st overall.

The event concluded with 8 stages on Saturday with the final stage being the very challenging 13 mile “Classic” stage which saw the crews tackle the tricky Druidale road in the mountains before heading down into Douglas and finishing outside the TT grandstand. Brown maintained his third in class position and gained a further 6 places on the overall leaderboard to finish 25^th.

“It was my second time competing on the event and once again it was a brilliant rally to be part of,” said Brown.  “The organisation was good and, as ever, the stages were fantastic – a real challenge. At over 190 competitive miles the event was much longer than a usual rally and it’s a great achievement to get to the finish.”

“We suffered a little with a clutch judder at the start of the stages on the Friday and Saturday but once the car got going it was fine. Other than that we had no problems and we completed all 27 stages with no damage to the car.”

“Thanks to all my sponsors whose support was vital in helping me contest the rally, thanks also to the P.A.C.E. team for looking after the car on the event and to Paul Stringer who did a fantastic job navigating me around the stages.”

Brown is now considering returning to the island for the Pokerstars rally in November.