Tesco 99 Octane MSA British Rally Championship - Round Five Report
Photo Caption
Guy Wilks and co-driver Phil Pugh (above) recorded their third victory of the season in this weekend's Rally Yorkshire, whilst Gwyndaf Evans and Huw Lewis (below) came home in fourth after holding second place for most of the event, only to be robbed on the final stage when a pin came out of the gear linkage. The result puts the Mitsubishi Motors UK Rally Team on the top of the Tesco 99 Octane MSA British Rally Championship team's standings and sees Wilks second and Evans third in the driver's table with one event still to go (copyright free images).
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| Mitsubishi takes third victory of the season
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PRESS INFORMATION
Guy Wilks, together with his co-driver Phil Pugh, scored their third Tesco 99 Octane MSA British Rally Championship victory of the season for the Mitsubishi Motors UK Works Team, when they won Saturday’s round five, the Rally Yorkshire. Having led the event from the start Wilks was never challenged and now moves up to second place in the driver’s championship standings. Team mates Gwyndaf Evans and Huw Lewis held second place – right up to the final stage – until a pin came out of a gear selection shaft when leaving the start line and, following the subsequent time loss whilst it was re-connected, they dropped to fourth. With two rounds and three points scoring opportunities remaining this season, the Mitsubishi team were completely focussed on achieving a strong finish with both cars this weekend, in order to keep their hopes for the driver’s and team’s titles firmly on track. Starting on Saturday morning from Pickering Showground, the Rally Yorkshire featured four stages in the forests of the north Yorkshire Moors, followed by a main service halt and a short spectator stage within the showground. The afternoon comprised a further six stages in the forests, before the finish back in Pickering after completing a total of 100 competitive miles. As they have done on every rally so far this year, the two Mitsubishi’s immediately headed the field, with Wilks emerging from the first stage an impressive six seconds ahead of Evans and, more significantly, 11 ahead of the their main rival Mark Higgins in a Subaru. Both Wilks and Evans continued to extend their advantage on stage two but, with noises coming from his car’s transmission when in third gear, Evans opted to drive with caution to ensure he made it back to the service halt after four stages. Even though he chose to skip third gear on occasions, Evans maintained his lead ahead of Higgins and, when cars headed back to Pickering following SS4 the time sheets showed Wilks now 20 seconds ahead, with Evans second a further six seconds up on the Subaru driver. With 30 minutes of servicing available, the Mitsubishi team replaced the gearbox in Evans’ Lancer with time to spare and, with his car restored to 100%, the experienced Welshman set off to extend the margin between him and Higgins. Wilks, however, went out with the sole intention of consolidating his lead – which is exactly what he did. With no mechanical issues at all throughout the afternoon, Wilks started the 11th and final stage 40 seconds ahead of Evans, who was now 10 ahead of Higgins, the team looking all set to score their second 1-2 result of the season. Wilks completed the stage without a hitch to take a resounding 50-second victory, but the spectre of recurring misfortune returned to plague Evans. As he left the start-line for the 9.68-mile run through Cropton Forest, all was going well until he went to select third gear and suddenly he found he couldn’t select any gears at all! As the car coasted to a halt, Evans jumped out and opened the bonnet. After a few moments he discovered that a retaining pin had come out of a selector shaft and, after clipping it back on, he and Lewis were on their way again. Although the remainder of the stage went well, around two and a half minutes had been lost, but such was the lead of the leading quartet of cars, Evans was still able to salvage a respectable fourth place, which combined with Wilks first position, was enough to launch Mitsubishi into the lead of the team’s championship. The result also elevates Wilks to second in the driver’s standings and Evans to third, positions which will see the battle for the British Championship go to the final event, the Wales Rally GB, which takes place on 30th November – 2nd December. With this also being the final round of the World Rally Championship and over twice the distance of a normal BRC round, organisers of the British series have elected that competitors will score double-points for this event. The Cirencester-based Mitsubishi Motors UK rally team is supported by HKS, Pirelli, Sparco, Speedline Corse, PIAA, Ricardo and Performance Friction Brakes. The team’s two Lancer Evolution IXs are built and run on events by ADR Motorsport of Chesterfield. Guy Wilks is supported by Mobil 1 and Sega Rally. Team Quotes Gwyndaf Evans “Rallying can be cruel sometimes. Everything was going so well and we were looking to score another 1-2 for the team until the last stage and then to have something as simple as a retaining pin break is just so unlucky, especially as I felt we had earned second place. Fortunately it didn’t take us long to get going again, so at least we were able to claim fourth place, which added to Guy’s first is not a bad result for the team.” Guy Wilks “We knew what we had to do – and we did it, although it wasn’t as easy as that of course. We got ourselves an early advantage and then it was a case of managing the gap, which meant I didn’t drive flat out this afternoon. It’s a great result for the whole team – especially as my car ran faultlessly throughout the event. We’re now back on track for the title, which is where we want to be with one event to go.” Paul Brigden - General Manager Ralliart “It’s great to take our third win of the season and to see both cars finish strongly. This result puts us back on top of the team’s championship standings and elevates both Guy and Gwyndaf in the drivers table. Both drivers delivered a text-book performance and I am so disappointed for Gwyndaf that he didn’t get the result he deserved. We must now re-focus our sights on the Wales Rally GB and the task of winning both the team’s and driver’s titles.” Rally Yorkshire - Results
Tesco 99 Octane MSA British Rally Championship standings after round five
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For
further information please contact: Paul
Brigden, General Manager - Ralliart Mitsubishi
Motors UK Motorsport Press Officer
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