BTRDA FRONT RUNNER BLACK RETURNS IN TITLE WINNER

Former BTRDA frontrunner and reigning Welsh Rally champion Callum Black will return to his first title winning car – a front-wheel-drive 1400cc MG ZR – on next month’s Woodpecker Stages.

Black hasn’t competed since 2017, when he used his Ford Fiesta R5+ to push Stephen Petch’s Fiesta World Rally Car for overall honours, eventually coming up short, despite scoring podiums on all but one of the six BTRDA events he entered.

He won the Wyedean Rally in November and hasn’t competed since due to business commitments and sold his Fiesta in January this year.

Black won the British Rally Challenge, which followed the British Rally Championship but used shorter events, in 2010, his second and last full season in the MG ZR.

He bought the car back in 2014 and used it on one event, the Nicky Grist Stages, where the throttle linkage snapped, and it hasn’t been out since.

He said: “I sold it to one of my dad’s mechanics, and we got it back off Malcolm Hague in 2014, who had been hiring it from Matt Edwards and then rolled it.

“It’s now in mint condition though and it’s a lovely car.

“We tested it at Walters Arena last week and it was great fun. It’s not got the power of the likes of Dave Brick’s Vauxhall Nova, we’ll do well to keep up with them, but I’d like to have fun and be in the mix.”

The car is in the original spec from 2011 when Black won the title, and it will likely be his last event in the car this year as he will rent it for hire for future events. So far, 11 1400S-spec cars have joined Black on the entry, among them the top three in the championship: Chris Powell, Brick and Kieran Darrington.