Rochdale rally ace Brown defies power

STEVE Brown made his trip back to Belgium a worthwhile one, by storming to a Flanders International Rally Challenge (FIRC) class win and taking his Nissan Micra Kit Car to 34th overall from a start position of 112 at the Hemicuda Rally last weekend.

The Rochdale driver overcame a significant power deficit to his class rivals, to finish the tough closed-road event sixth in class 3F.

His result also secured him maximum points in the FIRC M2B category and third two-wheel-drive machine home, meaning he now heads into the final round of the series in second spot.

Brown has enjoyed a busy fortnight of competitive action having piloted a Bellerby RX BMW Mini Cooper to third spot in the BTRDA Clubmans Championship “B Final” at Blyton Park Race Circuit the previous weekend.

His guest appearance in the series was the second of his career, arranged by sponsors Fuchs Lubricants and 710 Oils.

But he wouldn’t have time to enjoy his circuit success as he headed across to mainland Europe to resume his FIRC campaign in the popular Nissan.

Co-driven by Paul Stringer, Brown has not been able to secure the use of the Micra on all rounds of the season due to much-needed upgrades to the car taking longer than expected.

However, the penultimate round of the FIRC offered the chance to use the car with most of the changes undertaken and he would head to the Kortrijk based event in West Flanders with the intention of pushing the Kit Car harder than usual to test if the upgrades have been successful.

Starting well over 100th