Harry and co-driver James Ford made a good start to the event on the opening two stages, Monument and Route 60, setting two decent times in his Nissan Micra to lie second in the RF1.0 class.
Stage three was in Halfway forest and Harry was going well again but after arriving on the scene of an accident involving another competitor he stopped to check that the crew did not require medical assistance.
“The Monument and Route 60 stages went well and I was happy with my pace,” said Harry. “There were some very slippery parts of the course but we had no problems at all.”
“Unfortunately in stage three a car that started in front of us crashed and the car was upside-down when we approached so I stopped. I was relieved to find both crew members were ok as it looked like a nasty accident.”
Intercom problems made the remainder of stage three very tricky as Harry could not hear the instructions from his co-driver but the Micra crew made it to the end in once piece.
Harry pushed harder in the afternoon stages, setting particularly good times in Route 60 and Crychan before having a steady run over the final stage to ensure he made the finish in second place. The two runs of Route 60 formed the Power Stage Challenge, a new innovation that the event organisers introduced this year which awarded prizes to the fastest crews in each class, Harry winning an entry to next year’s event as a result of being the fastest RF1.0 crew.
“It was an amazing day, I am very happy to get second in class and also to have won the Power Stage Challenge. I was overwhelmed that we won the ‘Stars of the Day’ award, that was totally unexpected. I spoke to event sponsor Nicky Grist at the finish and the award was for stopping for the crew in stage three.”
“I would like to thank everyone involved for making it such an enjoyable weekend. I am currently looking for potential sponsors to get involved with the team for the remainder of this year and beyond, please contact me via www.harryrally.co.uk for further information.”
Harry will next be in action on the Woodpecker Stages rally at the beginning of September.
Image courtesy Simon Clarke
