Rally driver Nick Cristofaro ended his Junior rallying career last weekend with a dominant victory in the Brawdy Stages rally which was held at Brawdy airfield in West Wales. Cristofaro, 17, was co-driven on the event by Motorsport News journalist Sean Moriarty who is writing a feature on junior rallying. The new pairing got off to a brilliant start in their Nissan Micra, setting fastest time on the opening stage of the event.
"I quickly got used to Sean in the co-driver's seat and also to driving on tarmac again after my forest rally outing the weekend before," said Cristofaro. "We had a slight problem on the opening stage with our tyres getting too hot which resulted in a lot of understeer but other than that we had no incidents."
From the second stage onwards Cristofaro, from Milford Haven, concentrated on keeping his lines as smooth as possible to prevent the tyres from overheating and it was a tactic which paid off as he built up his lead on all the remaining stages, ending up a minute up on his nearest rival at the finish.
"It was a very successful day, it was great to finish my Junior rallying championship on a high. I would like to say thanks to Tristan Dodd for organising the championship, it has given me invaluable experience of competing on tarmac rallies and I'm aiming to put that to good use in the rest of my rallying career. Thanks also to the championship sponsors, especially Kick Energy who funded some test days in the forests which were also very useful in helping me prepare for a future in the sport."
Moriarty enjoyed his day co-driving, “I was really surprised at the standard of driving from all the juniors and it was a great day out. I was a lot busier in the co-driver’s seat than I expected as I tried to deliver the route instructions to Nick. The Juniors are getting a very valuable grounding in the sport and will be more than prepared when they move up to senior rallying. The Junior rally feature will appear in Motorsport News in late September or early October so please keep an eye out for it.”
Cristofaro is hoping to compete in some national level forestry level events in the next few months, starting with the Cambrian rally in October. His plans depend on finding sufficient funding, potential sponsors are invited to get in touch via http://www.nickcristofaro.co.nr for a portfolio.
The Brawdy Stages will be televised on the Ralio programme on S4C on 23rd September at 9.30pm.
