Burton Pidsea’s Becky Kirvan successfully completed the Dukeries rally last weekend claiming seventh in class. In doing so she maintained both her fourth position in the BTRDA Rally First 1.4 championship and the lead of the lady driver championship.The event, Kirvan’s third since making a comeback to rallying this year, was held on gravel tracks in Nottinghamshire including those in the well known Sherwood Pines forest.
With usual co-driver Sherryn Roberts not available for the event Kirvan had to get used to someone new in the passenger seat of the Rally4Real Nissan Micra, with Rob Walters reading the notes on this occasion. The pairing made a steady start on the opening two tests, Blidworth and Thieves Wood. Three longer stages followed in Sherwood Pines and Portland and Kirvan arrived at the midway service halt in eighth place in the RF1.4 class.
"I took the opening two stages fairly cautiously but tried to push a bit harder after that," said Kirvan.
"Unfortunately I think I pushed a bit too hard as we had several moments where I carried too much speed into corners and that, combined with the surface being looser than I expected, resulted in me taking a bad line which lost me time. The car also mounted a bank on a couple of occasions, apologies to any spectators I may have scared!"
New tyres were fitted to the Peart Auto Services-backed Micra at service and Kirvan moderated her enthusiasm on the corners to be much tidier on the afternoon stages which resulted in her moving up to seventh at the rally finish.
"At the start we were on the same tyres that we used on the previous event so they were pretty worn. The new tyres certainly made a difference and with me taking tidier lines around the corners our times improved."
"The Rally4Real Micra performed brilliantly once again, we had no problems at all. I enjoyed the stages and it’s good to have got another finish under my belt."
Kirvan will be competing again on the next RF1.4 championship round, the Quinton Stages rally in July. Please visit www.beckykirvan.co.uk to keep up to date with all the latest news and photos.
Image courtesy Simon Clarke Photography
