2009 News...

Yesterday I completed the Golden Jubilee Dukeries Rally, finishing 3rd in the BTRDA Rally First 1.4 class and overall 69th. The rally was based at Southwell Racecourse and contained stages in Sherwood Forrest called Thieves Wood and Sherwood Pines. 150 crews started the event and 98 finished.

We had a much better start to this rally and we were competitive from the 1st stage. This is an improvement compared to previous rallies where we have usually been playing catch up after the 1st stage. The weather was hot and dry which allowed the dust to hang in the air which at times made visibility difficult. The car went really well and coped with the many 90 degree right and left corners which were usually followed by long straight. We had our now customary tyre failure towards the end of the rally but it didn't have any effect the result this time.

There was some confusion at the end of the rally as we had been initially classified 2nd in class, due to Dave Bennett having a one minute time penalty. Later we found out that Bennett had appealed against the penalty and won, which demoted me to 3rd and promoted him to 2nd.

Overall this was a good result and has maintained my 2nd overall in the Rally First and Rally First RF1.4 Drivers championships.

The picture above shows us tackling the Thieves Wood stage on the Dukeries Rally.

The picture above myself at finish of the rally. More photos can be found if you click here Rally Gallery.

If you click on the following link you will be able to see Neil Johnson's article on our Dukeries rally experiences and also articles that appeared in Motorsport News relating to the Rally First crews on the rally. Press coverage.

Thanks as usual to Joe Cruttenden for being my Co-Driver for the rally and also thanks to John Goff and the Rallyschool team who prepared the car for the event.

My next rally will be the Quinton on the 4th July, which is based at Llandovery, Wales. The rally uses stages on and around the legendary Epynt Ranges. I competed on this rally last year in the Nissan Micra with Joe, and we hope to benefit, for once, from having some knowledge the stages. This will be the fifth round of the BTRDA Rally First Championship and again I'm aiming for a top three finish.

Cheers