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June 20, 2012
Faulkner Flys to second overall Jim Clark Rievers Rally
Mike Faulkner and Peter Foy secured second overall on a fantastic Jim Clark Rievers Rally held over the Jubilee Bank Holiday weekend. The Kirtlebridge driver flew through the closed roads around Duns and Kelso to finish 2nd overall for the 3rd time this season.
The BSW Timber backed Mitsubishi Evo VI driver was on the pace from the start, the first stage 8 miles through Bothell was extremely wet and caught many drivers out, Mike coped best to finish fastest six and a half seconds ahead of Euan Thorburn in his Ford Focus WRC with Barry Groundwater in a Mitsubishi Evo 9 was third. Front runner David Bogie was an early casualty, retiring on stage 1 with transmission failure.
"That first stage was a bit of a lottery - only for the brave!” said Mike: "We had the wind-screen wipers on full – there was standing water everywhere. The second run was dry for about three-quarters of the way. It makes tyre choice almost impossible". Mike headed to service 2nd overall dropping time to Euan on the drying roads having opted for intermediate Hankook tyres on stages 1 & 2.
For the third stage of the day the Supply UK Hire Shops Evo 6 crew were on slicks, the rain started as crews left the service "I fired the car off the start line, stamped on the brakes at the first corner and the car just kept going – it was a nightmare, we’d used 9 lives by the 5th corner!!", said Faulkner. The stage dried for the last 4 miles but Mike dropped time although still held onto 2nd overall.
Thorburn was again fastest on the fourth test, Swinton 1, to take his overall lead over Faulkner to just over a minute. Groundwater was still lying third, some five seconds adrift
Mike was just relieved to get to the finish after "wringing the neck" of his ageing EVO:
"We couldn't have gone any quicker – it's as fast as this old girl will go. It was really slippy this morning, more like a gravel stage, whereas this afternoon, especially the last stage, has been really high speed with a lot of 130mph braking zones. But after our woes on the Granite City this result has got our campaign back on track and sets us up nicely for the "RSAC Scottish" at the end of the month". At the finish Mike was just 1.9 secs ahead of the EVO 9 of Barry Groundwater and Mike Dickson who took the final podium place.
Jim Clark Reivers Rally – Top Five Finishers with total times:
1 Euan Thorburn (Duns)/Paul Beaton (Inverness) Ford Focus WRC 43m 27.9 secs
2 Mike Faulkner (Kirtlebridge)/Peter Foy (Bingley) Mitsubishi EVO 6 44.47.8
3 Barry Groundwater (Stonehaven)/Mike Dickson (St Boswells) Mitsubishi EVO 9 44.49.0
4 Dom Buckley (Duns)/Doug Redpath (Duns) Subaru Impreza 45.15.4 (non-SRC)
5 Dale Robertson (Duns)/Paul Maguire (Tranent) Mitsubishi EVO 9 45.19.9 (non-SRC)
Full information available - www.jimclarkrally.com
MSA Scottish Rally Championship – Positions after round 4 of 8
David Bogie 90
Barry Groundwater 90
Mike Faulkner 89
Euan Thorburn 84
John McClory 70
The fifth round of the MSA Scottish Rally Championship is the RSAC Scottish Rally in Dumfries on Saturday June 30th, Mike won the event in 2009 and finished 2nd overall in 2010 & 2011
www.scottishrally.co.uk
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