Premier Rally

Re-vamped into a single venue format following the cancellation of the 2010 event, the 2011 Premier Rally may well be the future model for Clubman forest rallying. It certainly provided plenty of spectacle and interest and saw a close battle for overall honours. After six stages Robert Swann & Darren Garrod (Impreza) took victory by 11 seconds, after setting fastest time on the opening pair and final pair of stages. Proving consistency is key Ian Joel & Graeme Wood (Escort Cosworth) were 2nd fastest on all but 1 stage to finsih in 2nd place overall with the podium being completed by the similar car of Richard Hill and Pat Cooper, who had set fastest time on the middle pair of stages.

Wales Rally GB

The championship came down to the final round but in the end neither of the contenders finished. Mikko Hirvonen (Fiesta WRC) retired on day 2 with a damaged engine after cooking it when he split the radiator in the first run through Dyfnant. Sebastien Loeb (DS3 WRC) had the title in the bag as was then free to battle with Jari-Matti Latvala (Fiesta WRC) for the rally. In the end it came to nought as Latvala was leading when Loeb collided with a spectator car on a road section. Mads Ostberg (Fiesta WRC) finished almost 4 minutes back in second place with Henning Solberg (Fiesta WRC) a similar margin back in 3rd.

Tempest Rally

Bonfire night and another trip down to Farnborough for the Tempest rally. As per the last few years the rally was split into two, the Tempest 2 and Tempest 4. In the Tempest 4 Michael O’Brien & Paul Spooner took victory debuting their latest Focus WRC.  The victory margin was just over a minute which was an excellent performance but eyes were drawn to the crew in 2nd place as it was Dan O’Brien & James Morgan out in a much older Focus WRC, that hasn’t been used by his father for a couple of seasons. Just 9 seconds back in third place were Jason Pritchard & Dale Furniss, in their group N Impreza.