Williams bags win as Roskell stars
James Williams and Ross Whittock emerged to claim maximum Protyre Asphalt Championship points after posting a late registration for the championship. Their Hyundai i20 Rally2 ended the event not only fourth overall but also nearly 50s up on the nearest Protyre challenger.
A superb fifth overall to top the rest of the Protyre pack fell to Neil Roskell and Dai Roberts after a mighty performance in their Fiesta Rally2. Going into the final six miles of Nicky Nook, Roskell was 3.4 seconds down on Mark Kelly and Will Atkins in their Skoda Fabia R5 but turned in a monster time to snatch the place and even move ahead of Keith Cronin in the overall final positions.
However, when Roskell made it back to Garstang for the finish, the Fiesta was looking rather battered. Roskell explained: “At the last chicane it just wouldn't turn in and we smacked a big bale and damaged the front of the car. It was then running hot by the time we got back to the finish but we made it home.”
Sixth overall and third in the Protyre ranks was still a fine result for Kelly, who was just three seconds adrift of Roskell. Kelly said: “That's one of the most challenging rallies I've ever done. I've not followed the BRC boys before and the amount of cutting that goes on, so it was a bit of a culture shock. But we wanted to get the car back in one piece and we've done that.”
Protyre points for fourth, and a fine ninth overall, fell to Hugh
Brunton and Drew Sturrock in their Fabia Rally2, after a great run through some truly challenging stages and conditions.
Another strong performance, this time on home ground, came from Simon Bowen and Craig Simkiss who were sixth Protyre finishers in their Ford Fiesta
S2000T, Just three seconds up on 2022 champions Steve Wood and Kenny Hull in their Citroen C3 Rally2. “It was really difficult to get into a rhythm this morning,” said Wood. The flying William
Hill and Peredur Davis in the
Fiesta Rally3 were next before Steve Simpson and Mark Glennerster in their Fiesta Rally2.
Both James Ford and Dave
Wright were early casualties and went home with rather battered cars after accidents on stages one and two respectively, while Callum Black and Jack Morton hit trouble on SS3 Crossgill when they clipped a wall and bent the rear suspension. They managed to get back to service and fix the problem and went back out in the afternoon to salvage 18th place overall and 10th in the Protyre ranks.
Further down the order, one of the day’s biggest accidents befell Peter Jackson and Sam Spencer when their freshly built Ford
Escort Mk2 got out of shape on the first run of Long Knots. The car speared across the road and went head on into a tree with sickening force. After typically professional care by the rescue services, Jackson was transferred to hospital but, thankfully, was released before the end of the day.
Late on parade: James Williams signed up late, but won
Neil Roskell put on a strong late charge to regain time
William Hill turned heads in his class-winning Rally3 car