Milford Haven rally driver Nick Cristofaro, 16, enjoyed a very successful weekend at the Chatsworth Rally Show which cumulated in him beating one of the stars of the World Rally Championship.Cristofaro, who is competing in the Junior 1000 rally championship for drivers aged 14-17, was specially selected to take part in the popular Rally Show event which attracts many thousands of spectators.
After doing several demonstration runs in his Nissan Micra rally on the event’s rally stage Cristofaro took part in a competition which saw him do a timed run against World Rally Championship driver Henning Solberg, British National Champion Steve Perez and leading British Rally Championship contender Craig Breen, all of whom were in Micras. Amazingly Cristofaro set the joint fastest time with Breen and beat the times of Solberg and Perez.
Also taking part in the weekend’s activities were the M-Sport World Rally team. Their driver, Jari-Matti Latvala, set a time in the Ford Focus he usually uses in the World Rally Championship which was only nine seconds ahead of Cristofaro in his 1.0 litre Micra.
Cristofaro’s weekend was rounded of with rides in both the Breen’s Fiesta S2000 rally car and Perez’s Focus WRC.
“I was delighted to beat driver’s of the calibre of Henning Solberg and Steve Perez,” said Cristofaro. “I think they’re used to a lot more power than I am! Steve sat in with me when I did my run, he sponsors the Junior 1000 championship via his Kick Energy brand so it was good to be able to show him that his support is helping to produce competitive junior drivers.”
“Having the passenger rides in the Fiesta and Focus was brilliant too. My aim is to be driving those kind of cars in a few years so it was great to get some experience of their speed and handling.”
“I’d like to say thanks to Steve Perez for his support of both the weekend and the Junior championship and also for the rides in the Kick Energy-backed cars.”
Cristofaro returns to the Junior 1000 championship on June 20th with the Midsummer Caerwent Rally.
