PAYNE CHASES BTRDA TITLE ON HOME GROUND
Teenager Elliot Payne could seal the BTRDA Gold Star title on this weekend’s Trackrod Forest Stages.
The 19-year-old heads into his native Yorkshire event needing a victory among the BTRDA contenders to make certain of the title ahead of the final round of the season, the Cambrian Rally in late October. Anything other than maximum points for Payne in Yorkshire probably means that the contest will go down to the wire.
Going into the seventh of eight rallies, five drivers are still in the running for the title and it is Stephen Petch, Perry Gardener and Matthew
Hirst who are the closest challengers to Payne.
However, the wild card could be Callum Black, out for a second event in his new Ford Fiesta Rally2. Having won round six, The Woodpecker Rally, Black will seek to take maximum points in Yorkshire, which could upset Payne’s title ambitions for at least another month.
Black runs first on the road in the four-wheel-drive BTRDA element of the rally, followed by Hirst, Payne, David Henderson, Gardener and Petch as Fiesta Rally2s and R5s dominate the field.