Pirelli Rally

After missing out 2010 we were back up in Kielder for the 2011 Pirelli Rally where David Bogie & Kevin Rae (Evo IX) made it 2 wins out of 3 in the BRC. Bulldog winners Elfyn Evans & Andrew Edwards were in close attendance until the end of stage 5 but then they had a character building drive to get to the finish. In the end it was the Fabia S2000’s which completed the podium with Robert Barrable & Damien Connolly a fine second, just over a minute back, with Jonny Greer & Dai Roberts a minute and a half further back in 3rd. In the 2WD section a late check in cost the Clio R3 pairing of Mark Donnelly & Barry McNulty dear. They would have won the category comfortably but instead were fourth. Martin McCormack & David Moynihan (DS3 R3) took the win by almost 20 seconds from the Finnish pairing of Jukka Korhonen & Marko Salminen (Fiesta R2). Craig Breen & Gareth Roberts (Fiesta R2) completed the podium a further 10 seconds back.

Somerset Stages Rally

Another fantastic day down in Somerset for the 3rd round of the 2011 BTRDA rally championship. Starting first in the main field were Andrew Burton & Robin Kellard (Peugeot Cosworth) who took an initial lead only for Hugh Hunter & Andy Marchbank (Focus WRC) to push past them by 1 second overall into first service. Porlock followed and Burton lost time on his less favoured surface and fell behind Roger Chilman & Andrew Sankey (Impreza WRC) also. Hunter held an 8 second lead over Chilman and 11 seconds over Burton after Porlock but then came the push. Chilman halved the gap in two stages and Burton was only a second further back, then on Croydon both Burton & Chilman clawed back the margin so all 3 crews went into the final two stages level.

Bulldog Rally

Another year and another Bulldog rally and this time we did get to see the BRC crews but not until we had caught the BHRC crews twice. In the headline event Elfyn Evans took his first major victory, co-driven by Andrew Edwards in his Impreza N15. In the Historic’s Nick Elliott & Chris Brooks (Escort MkII) built up a comfortable lead and kept Julian Reynolds in check through the last few stages. Matt Edwards & Sam Collis (MG ZR) were easy winners in the BRC Challenge with last but by no means least Shaun Gardener & Ben Innes (Evo 5.9) won the National rally by just 2.6 seconds.