April 28, 2011

Faulkner moves to 2nd overall in Scottish Rally Championship

The third round of the MSA Scottish Rally Championship provided a fantastic battle over 6 classic highland stages.

Mike Faulkner and Peter Foy finished on identical times with young charger David Wilson, tied for third place overall. Dave Weston (Focus World Rally Car) piped David Bogie (Lancer Evo IV) by 1 second to win 2011 Cars Recovery Granite City Rally.

The event started with 7 miles through Fetterwsso, Mike opted for a smooth style on the loose marbley surface, hoping to pick up where he left off following 2nd overall on the recent Border Counties Rally. The BSW Timber supported Lancer Evo 6 emerged from the stage 9th overall; the pace and commitment amongst the top crews was breathtaking. The crew were surprised at the time and set about recovering the lost ground.

The longest stage of the day was 12 miles through Glenfarquhar, Mike adopted a much more aggressive style and although they appeared to be losing time sliding the car they set a time 5th fastest and moved to 6th overall which he repeated on the 7 mile Drumtochy stage.

Arriving at the lunch time service break Mike was determined to improve on 6th overall over the final three stages, the crew softened the suspension to try and improve traction and adjusted the brake bias to try and make the car more stable on braking.

The eight mile Durris test saw an improvement with SupplyUK Hire Shops supported crew setting a time 3rd overall “the braking is much better and I’ve more confidence in the set up, a small change has transformed the car” said Mike. The crews headed for the final stage of the day, 5 miles through Fetteresso where they emerged tied in 3rd place with David Wilson.

“the competition has been fantastic on the Granite today” said Mike at the finish “the Scottish Championship has again provided a brilliant days rallying, the top two crews were separated by 1 second and we finished on the same time as David, the championship is so close. This isn’t the result we were hoping for but to move from 9th after the first stage is great, we lost out on a podium place in the tie break, if I’d known David was so close we might have squeezed another second through the final stage.” Continued Mike. But we are now 2nd in the Championship and looking forward to the challenging tarmac roads of the Jim Clark rally next month.

Final results CARS Recovery Granite City Rally

1 DAVE WESTON/ALED DAVIES FORD FOCUS - 44:10
2 DAVID BOGIE/KEVIN RAE MITSUBISHI EVO 9 - 44:11
3 DAVID WILSON/DAVE ROBSON - MITSUBISHI EVO 9 - 45:30
4 MIKE FAULKNER/PETER FOY - MITSUBISHI EVO 6 - 45:30
5 ROBBIE HEAD/CLAIRE MOLE - MITSUBISHI EVO - 45:42

MSA Scottish Rally Championship positions after round 3 (of 8)

1 David Bogie Kevin Rae Mitsubishi Evo IV 88
2 Mike Faulkner Peter Foy Mitsubishi Evo VI 80
3 Euan Thorburn Paul Beaton Mitsubishi Evo IV 79
4 Robbie Head Claire Mole Mitsubishi Evo IV 73

Next event the Jim Clark Rievers Rally - 2th May 2011

Web site www.jimclarkrally.com

Championship
www.scottishrallychampionship.co.uk

Results
www.flyingfinish.co.uk

Event Web site
www.granitecityrally.co.uk