Britton is Top Dog at the Dogleap Rally

Posted: August 18, 2003 8:37 PM

It was their first run of the season on gravel but both Colin and Kenny took it in their stride. After a first stage scare when the car bounced back onto the road after running wide at a five-left, they settled into the event. Consistently setting top three times, the Micra crew were lying second behind Stephen and David Dickson's Vauxhall Nova at the mid-point of the rally.

'We eased ourselves in over the first loop of stages', Colin said. 'At first service we were happy enough with our pace, only to discover we had a 28 second deficit to Stephen and David in the Nova!' On realising they were 28 seconds in arrears, both Colin and Kenny decided to up the ante on the following stages. 'We attacked harder on the second loop and improved our times but Dickson's pace was too hot', Colin said. 'We managed to beat him on stage seven but with two stages remaining we were 38 seconds behind and he looked definite for a class win.'

The Micra crew, who are also sponsored by A.B. Contracts and Pacenotes, decided to take the sensible option and settle for a good points finish. It was a wise move as the following stage was very rough. So rough in fact it claimed two of their class rivals including leaders, Steven and David Dickson. Colin said: 'The first Loughermore stage was in atrocious condition so we backed right off to save the car. When we saw Dickson's Nova off near the end of the stage we backed off even more. His retirement left us leading the class so we coasted through the last stage and won by over one minute from Lucy Ford-Hutchinson.'

'We're really pleased with the result. It's our best on gravel to date but we have to give credit to David Dickson who would most certainly have taken a convincing win had he not been forced to retire with a broken oil cooler. We're looking forward to the last three rounds - I'm sure there will be many more tussles with the Nova crew to come!'