‘Cole keeps Asphalt fight alive’
Sixth win for ‘King of Epynt’ matches Price’s record.
Damian Cole confirmed his status as the King of Epynt after taking victory on the Mewla Rally in his Ford Fiesta RS WRC, and in the process equalled John Price’s record of six wins on the event.
In scorching conditions and partnered by Paul Spooner, who was alongside Cole on his first Mewla win in 2008, the pair were fastest on the first loop of stages and were never headed as they recorded a start-to-finish victory.
Second went to Jason Pritchard/ Phil Clarke who had day-long issues with their Ford Focus WRC05, while veterans Bob Fowden/den Golding showed the youngsters a thing or two by finishing a fine third in their Subaru Impreza S11 WRC 05.
Following on from his victory on the Harry Flatters Rally last month, Cole retained the same set-up for the Mewla and held a 13-second lead after the opening three stages. On the second running of the stages, Cole set fastest or equal fastest time on each of them to stretch his advantage to 25s before adding another four seconds to his lead with another fastest time on the long seventh test.
After the first loop of stages, it was Fowden/golding who were in second, the pair surviving a huge moment on the Burma Road on SS2, but they were still 10s up on Pritchard/clarke. They maintained their place over the second loop before dropping to fourth after SS7 when some suspension changes didn’t work as they had hoped.
It hadn’t been a good start for Pritchard, whose Focus WRC05 persisted in running in road rather than stage mode following an ECU change. Nonetheless, he and Clarke
battled on with the down-on-power car and by stage seven had moved up to second place, albeit almost half a minute down on Cole.
He may only have competed on Epynt once before, but Alan Kirkaldy was having a great run as he and Cameron Fair held third place having set equal fastest time on SS5 in their Ford Fiesta R5. Just a few seconds behind Fowden after SS7 were the first time pairing of John Stone/michael Gilbey, the driver pleased with their morning’s efforts in their Fiesta RS WRC as Richard Clews/ Shaun Layland would have liked a harder compound tyre for their Impreza, but still held sixth place.
With the afternoon stages running from the New Road, there was no change at the top of the leaderboard as Cole/spooner maintained their advantage at the front setting fastest or equal fastest on two of the three stages over the fourth loop. Almost half a minute ahead, they were able to relax their pace over the final loop of the day to secure a comfortable win and help Cole maintain his Motorsport UK Asphalt Championship challenge.
“I seem to have the set-up right, the car’s much easier to drive and seems much more stable,” said a happy Cole.
Even though the afternoon hadn’t been the best for Pritchard/clarke, whose Focus WRC had cut out mid-stage on the SS10 and SS13 tests, forcing Pritchard to switch to an alternative fuel pump to cure the problem, the pair held on to second. Pritchard and Cole will now go head-to-head for the Asphalt crown on Otterburn next month.
Fowden/golding continued to try different settings on their Impreza as the car had felt too stiff during the morning but changing tyres helped as the pair set fastest time on the final stage to move back up to third position.
Unfortunately for Kirkaldy, he caught a car on the long eighth stage and was held up for several miles, the resulting delay dropping him to fourth. Describing his run as “eventful”, he showed some good pace and was pleased with his performance as an Epynt newcomer.
Also happy with his day was Stone, who almost lost fifth place when he had a moment on the final stage. “I went a bit wide but got away with it,” he said.
A disappointed Clews retired his overheating Impreza on the final road section after completing the stages, as Darren Atkinson/phil Sandham led the two-wheel-drive contenders home in sixth place in their Ford Escort Mk2.