Bentham’s
David Wright was robbed of the chance to push for a victory on last weekend’s
Dukeries rally when a driveshaft snapped dropping him down the leaderboard.
Wright
got off to a great start in his Kumho Tyres,
Proflex, Drenth, York Brewery, Millers Oils, Owen Developments and Grove Hill
Garage-supported
Mitsubishi Evo 9 and, after setting the fastest time in stage 5
he was up to second overall, just 11 seconds off the leader. With another five
stages still to go Wright was confident of making up the time to take the win
but disaster struck on the start line of stage 8 when the driveshaft broke.
With
no service halt after stage 8 Wright was forced to do two stages with the
damaged shaft which dropped him to 13th on the leaderboard. The
problem was fixed for the last stage and Wright made it to 12th
place and 4th in class.
“The
first few stages went really well,” said Wright. “I was very happy to be
beating all but one of the World Rally class cars, the Dukeries stages have a
lot of long straights which are a major disadvantage for our car.”
“I
think we had a great chance of winning the event but the snapped shaft put paid
to that. It was a very disappointing way to end what could’ve been a fantastic
rally for us.”
Wright’s
next event will be the Nicky Grist Stages in July although he will also be
appearing at the Goodwood Festival of Speed as part of the International Rally
Drivers Club display.
Image courtesy Simon Clarke
Image courtesy Simon Clarke
