BRC Rallymasters Ready for Yorkshire
28 September 2006
The BRC Rallymasters has its fifth round as the Trackrod National Rally
on Saturday October 7th and current points leader Will Nicholls is looking
to make it two in a row after nursing his borrowed Subaru around to
take victory last time out.
Isle of Wight based Nicholls has been contesting the BRC Rallymasters
– a new championship this season open to cars no longer eligible
for the Tesco 99 Octane MSA British Rally Championship due to the GpN
and S1600 specifications it now runs – in his own Subaru WRC until
gearbox problems forced him to borrow a car at the last minute for the
Ulster Rally at the start of September.
Despite the borrowed car and, in his own words, ‘driving like
a granny,’ BRC Rallymasters victory came on the Ulster Rally for
Nicholls and co-driver Nick Broom in the excellent value for money series.
“We’ll have the same car as we had in Ulster as we did a
deal to run it for the Trackrod and it didn’t go too bad on our
first time in it,” says Nicholls, who currently sits 20 points
ahead of his nearest rival in the series standings. “The weather
conditions on the last one were atrocious, the worse I’ve ever
seen, so we’ll be hoping for better in Yorkshire.
It’s not only the car that’s new for Nicholls. “I’ve
never done the Trackrod before and it’ll be my first time in the
car in its gravel settings,” he says. “It’s left hand
drive which I’m not really used to so the first stage will be
more of a test than anything.”
Second placed Nigel Griffiths is not due to contest this event but there
will still be competition for Nicholls in the form of Jim Clark Rally
BRC Rallymasters winner, Ernie Graham.
The European Historic Rally champion sits in fourth place overall in
the standings and heads the F2000 class. Unlike previous events this
season, Graham will be contesting this event in his Mk1 Ford Escort,
the one with which he took his FIA title last year.
“I’ll be using the Mk1 as it’s more of a gravel car,”
confirms Graham. “It should go well there and we’ve always
had good runs on the Trackrod too. I’ve done it the last four
or five years and last year we were second overall in the historics
which was a very good result indeed. All we’ll be needing is for
Will Nicholls to retire and that’ll suit us nicely.”
Shelley Taunt sits in third spot of the overall standings and leads
the production class. “The Trackrod Rally has always been a favourite,
I love the stages whether it’s wet or dry and I’m really
looking forward to this one,” says Taunt.
Taunt will be hoping for a better weekend than her preparation for the
event. She contested the Plains Rally on Saturday 23rd September but
suffered an off after suspension failure on the first stage.
“A lower arm broke just 300 metres into the stage and we went
off,” says Taunt. “My family were on the corner and saw
it all happen. Apparently I was about half an inch from falling down
a massive drop so we’re pretty lucky about that. In a way it’s
quite lucky it happened on the Plains as I’d be devastated if
it happened on the Trackrod.”
The fifth round of the BRC Rallymasters Championship takes place as
part of the Trackrod National Rally. The rally starts from Pickering
Showground at 9.51 and the first car is scheduled to finish at 16.51.
See 2006 series calendar for British
Rally Championship
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