North Humberside Forest Rally - (Sat) 31 Mar 07

Posted: April 3, 2007 10:49 AM

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BITTER SWEET WRC DEBUT FOR CHAMPION
Despite setting fastest time on three of the four stages on Saturday's Wold Construction North Humberside Forest Rally, a double puncture denied Ryan Champion a victory on his debut in a World Rally Car.

Driving the Dunlop-shod Pine Direct Online backed Mitsubishi Lancer WRC for the first time and partnered by new co driver for the day Louise Sutherland, the Castleton driver was immediately setting the pace on the opening stage, stopping the clocks five seconds faster than his main rival, former ANCRO Champion Steve Perez. However, it emerged that both drivers had beaten the bogey time for the stage so they were officially equal at the top of the time sheets. Champion was again fastest on SS2 but unfortunately trouble struck on the third test.

Champion commented, "We had some problems with the intercom so we'd switched to the spare which didn't seem to have quite have enough volume. I heard Louise call the corner but missed that it tightened. We ran wide up a bank which only cost a couple of seconds but unfortunately gave us two punctures and we only had one spare!"

The resulting time loss dropped the pair well down the order but determined to prove what might have been, Champion set a time sixteen seconds quicker than anyone else in the final stage although they again beat the bogey time, this time by a full eleven seconds.

Ryan said at the finish, "I'm really pleased with the speed we've shown as I'd only done ten miles in the car before the event. But at the same time it should have been a win today so that's frustrating. I have to say a big thank you though to Davy Hughes for the chance to drive his car today, it's a fantastic machine and also to Louise, his regular co driver, who did a great job on the notes for me."

Ironically Champion's regular co driver, fellow Yorkshireman Craig Thorley, won the event as he was partnering Perez for the day.

Ryan's next planned outing is the first round of the British Rally Championship, the Pirelli International Rally. "There is still quite a lot of work to do before we can confirm the Pirelli entry as we don't even have a car as yet never mind the budget!" Ryan quipped. "I am working on a couple of things though and hopefully everything will fall into place over the next week or so."

The Pirelli International Rally starts in Carlisle on April 20th.

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PEREZ POWERS TO HUMBERSIDE VICTORY
VK Vodka Kick rally driver Steve Perez emerged victorious for the second week in succession as after winning last weekend's Border Counties Rally, he took the win on this weekend's Wold Construction North Humberside Forest Rally.

Driving the VK-backed Ford Focus WRC along with Yorkshire co-driver Craig Thorley, the pair overcame a stiff challenge from local ace Ryan Champion (Mitsubishi WRC) until he encountered problems, leaving Perez to charge clear and control the event.

After crossing the Whitby finish ramp some 46 seconds clear at the head of the field, the 2004 ANCRO Champion commented "Two wins in a week isn't bad, I'm delighted. Ryan gave me a good run until he had problems but once we were ahead, we just kept it clean and like on the Border Counties it all went to plan. Now the task will be to make it three out of three on the Manx and get one over on Birdy (Paul Bird)" said Steve.

Perez was responding to an April Fools joke, hatched by Bird and the pair's joint PR man Larry Carter whereby they issued an official release referring to him as 'Grandad' - a name affectionately bestowed on Perez by his friend and rival Bird.

"I wondered what was going on when people started ringing me up and once I realised what had happened, I had to laugh. But I'll get my own back on them, don't worry" said the leader of the Hankook MSA Gravel Rally Championship.

Perez left early to return to Chesterfield where he was set to marshal on the VK Road Rally which he sponsors and he'll next be in action on the RBS Manx International Rally on May 11th/12th.

Rally Results
1 Steve Perez/Craig Thorley (Ford Focus WRC) - 0:41:03
2 Will Nicholls/Nick Broom (Subaru Impreza WRC) - 0:41:49
3 David Bogie/Rob Fagg (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9) - 0:42:28
4 Peter Egerton/Paul Spooner (Hyundai Accent WRC) - 0:42:28
5 Warren Philliskirk/Eurig Evans (MG Metro 6R4) - 0:42:43
6 Tony Davies/Patrick Walsh (Subaru Impreza WRC) - 0:42:59

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PRE EVENT NEWS

• CHAMPION TO DRIVE MITSUBISHI LANCER WRC

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CHAMPION TO DRIVE MITSUBISHI LANCER WRC
Following the recent announcement by Mitsubishi, former Evo Challenge winner Ryan Champion is still planning on contesting a number of events this season, starting with this weekend’s Wold Construction North Humberside Forest Rally which is based locally to Champion's home in Whitby.

  The runner up in last year’s British Rally Championship has secured a drive in a Mitsubishi Lancer WRC on his local event and is planning on getting his season off to a winning start on the BTRDA Championship event.  

"I have to say a huge thank you to Davy Hughes of Pine Direct for this opportunity. He's running the car in the Scottish Championship and to drive it on a local event is fantastic" Champion said.  

The car is a Step 2 Lancer WRC as driven on the World Championship in the past by Alistair McRae, run by MSR Motorsport, and Ryan is looking forward to the challenge.  

"I had a brief run in the car last week and it felt good but this is my first event in a World Rally Car so the plan is to enjoy it but I still obviously want to do well!" Champion also carried out the shakedown test of Toni Gardemeister's Mitsubishi Lancer WRC05 last week ahead of the Rally of Portugal.  

Champion also commented, "I'm still working hard on putting something together for the Pirelli International Rally, which is the first round of the British Rally Championship but it's not quite there yet. I'm determined to start the first round of the BRC one way or another but for now I'm just looking forward to this weekend."  

The North Humberside Rally starts from Whitby's Spa Pavilion at 9am on Saturday morning before heading into the North Yorkshire forests. There will be a lunch time service back in Whitby before the rally finishes at the Spa around 3pm.

More Details:

North Humberside Forest Rally