MATEJA BAGS MN CHRIS INGRAM TITLE WITH VICTORY IN SCOTLAND
Pedro Silva pushes Mateja all the way in Scottish classic but to no avail.
It came down to two. Lukas Mateja knew just a solid top 10 result would secure him the Motorsport News Chris Ingram Rally Challenge title. Pedro Silva knew he had to beat Mateja to land the title which, given Mateja’s form, meant he effectively had to win the Carfinance 247 Scottish Rally to stand a chance. What unfolded was a supreme tussle that was fitting of just how competitive the series has been.
For the first time all season, the leaders opted for a different set of wheels with Mateja, competing as Crsedmicky, sticking with the Mitsubishi Space Star R5 that propelled him to victory last week in
Greece while Silva reverted to the Ford Fiesta R5 that he used to win in Finland.
Merely finishing the stages in the Perth and Kinross forests was an achievement with half of the rally held under the blanket of darkness and the various log piles, rocks and ditches littering the high-speed tracks. The fact
75% of the starters failed to see the finish was a testament to this.
Annbank Station opened proceedings and for the first time this season, it wasn’t Mateja who led after SS1. He was second, tucked just 0.242 seconds behind early leader Ker0kkuma. A supreme time on Glencastle Farm Reverse however restored natural order as Mateja pulled out a 4.9s lead with rival Silva occupying third. Ker0kkuma’s shot in the limelight was momentary as he exited the contest on SS2.
Mateja took the next test only for Silva to respond on South Morningside and gnaw the gap down to 4.3s. SS5 Newhouse Bridge would prove pivotal though as Silva destroyed Mateja by over 10s to open up a 7s advantage over his rival, with Japanese pilot Ranofka now second and demoting Mateja to third.
Silva had the bit between his teeth and took another stage win on Old Butterstone Muir but Glencastle Farm was less successful. He ceded ground to second-placed Ranofka and Mateja was back on form to take the scratch time. At this point Silva’s buffer over Mateja was 9.2s which wouldn’t be enough to deny Mateja his title.
But Silva had been here before. Mateja didn’t need to win in Finland when he dropped half a minute with a puncture, but he still came within a second of snatching glory. Mateja didn’t want to just finish to take the title he wanted to win in Scotland too.
Narrow stage wins on SS8 and SS9 were a legacy of this determination and a monster drive on Newhouse Bridge Reverse slashed Silva’s advantage to just 1.4s. Ranofka was 14.9s slower than Mateja to fall to third, 8s ahead of Jon Armstrong who was lurking in fourth.
Onto the penultimate stage and the front two were in a league of their own. Despite it being a short test, the pair were more than 4s quicker than anyone else but it was Mateja who was quickest by 1.7s. That gave him a 0.2s lead heading into the final stage of the season which he duly extended by 2.2s to win in Scotland by 2.4s and seal a richly-deserved title in the most gratifying of manners.
Ranofka scored a comfortable third place in the end, 53s up the road from Spaniard Damian Garcia in fourth, who profited when Armstrong punctured on SS11. Without a spare, the JWRC driver had no choice but to drive the final stage with a destroyed wheel. Agonisingly, he’d miss out on fourth spot by 0.3s but it was still his best result to date and he became the first real-life driver to win a stage on South Morningside Reverse.
Jonathan Schaeffer finished sixth – 2.9s shy of Armstrong – with a performance he described as “not really that epic.” An
SS10 puncture cost him but his tactic of survival paid off as he secured third in the championship behind Mateja and Silva.
Local hero Alan Scott spun on the first stage but kept it tidy as he sought to beat Chris Ingram in the championship. Ingram confessed the rally was “ridiculously hard” as his Skoda Fabia R5 battled four punctures and survived two barrel rolls to finish
13th overall. Scott bagged seventh in the championship as Ingram took ninth.
British Rally champion Matt Edwards felt Scotland was the “best event I’ve driven to date” on DIRT Rally 2.0 and he’d be right. He finished a credible
17th overall with American co-driver
Alex Kihurani and BTRDA driver Ewan Tindall just ahead of him.