Ecstatic Wink takes his first win on Wales Rally GB National event
John Wink was left ecstatic after claiming his first ever rally win last weekend on perhaps the biggest stage of all – Wales Rally GB National.
The Hyundai i20 R5 driver finished runner-up on the event last year but managed to go one better this time, eventually winning by 1m30.3s from
Dylan Davies.
The gap did not reflect the ferocity of the battle though, as Thomas Preston had been pushing hard and leading before clutch issues sidelined his Ford Focus RS WRC.
“We’re just delighted, it’s a good one for the mantlepiece,” Wink told Motorsport News.
“The WRC that he [Preston] has is a modern piece of kit so we really were up against it from the word go. And then Tom’s a good driver, he knows the stages down here a little bit better than we do, and we knew we would have to stick in there and we did.
“We were quite happy with the pace, bar a spin on stage two, which lost us a chunk of time. We studied the notes pretty thoroughly for the first stage on Saturday, Dyfi, so we had a big push in there and we came out of that stage thinking we’re bound to have either equalled Tom’s time or taken time out of him. So [we were] happy with that.”
Wink had only four previous podiums to his name before his victory, of which two were in the Scottish Rally Championship. His plan now is to add to that tally and reach the top step in the championship.
“The Scottish championship is really strong,” he added. “This just proves that we can come here and win with a minute-and-a-half margin. We need to see if we can close the gap on some of our competitors up north [now].”