Swansea based 18 year old Tom Watson survived the high speed forest roads of North Yorkshire to record his second consecutive top six finish at the wheel of his TRT Welding backed Ford Fiesta ST on last weekends Trackrod Challenge Rally. This result also saw young Watson classified fourth in the VK Fiesta Sporting Trophy on a day when bravery and mechanical sympathy were required in equal doses.
Watson and co-driver Ken Bowman tackled the four stage sprint event focused on just running their own rally and vowing not to compare times with their rivals. This system worked well and Tom was pleased to set a string of highly competitive times, ending the rally with a fifth fastest time through the ten miles of Cropton.
I need to work on my opening stage performances as it takes me a little while to find the groove, but apart from that I’m happy with how the day went. We survived a big moment in Stage 3 as we went sideways through some gateposts, but other than that it was pretty easy going all day long.
As a result of the strong end to his debut season in rallying Tom has finished seventh overall in the Kick Energy Fiesta Sporting Trophy as well as third overall in the British Rally Championship Challenge Juniors standings – pretty impressive for someone who had never driven a rally car before the start of 2009!
British Rally Championship Challenge Junior Standings
John Boyd 119.5 points
Robert Barrable 119.5
Tom Watson 112
For more information on the Kick Energy Fiesta Sporting Trophy please visit http://www.fiestasportingtrophy.co.uk
For more information on the BRC Challenge 2009 please visit http://www.rallybrcchallenge.co.uk
Photos courtesy of Geoff Mayes Media (www.geoffmayesmedia.com)
A short highlights video is available here –
