PAYNE COMMITS TO BRITISH RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP PROGRAMME
Ripon charger ready to take on his biggest challenge in 2023
Elliot Payne is one of the first leading drivers to commit to a full campaign in this year’s British Rally Championship.
Payne, who only turned 20 earlier this month, is the current BTRDA
Gold Star Rally champion and will use the Ford Fiesta Rally2 he drove towards the end of last season. He will be co-driven by Tom Woodburn.
Ripon youngster Payne will start his season on his local Riponian Rally before tackling the closed-road East Riding Stages Rally on February 26 as he seeks to build on limited asphalt experience.
“The East Ridings fits in nicely with our BRC preparations and it’s a chance to work more with Tom. It’s all part of the experience and it’s in Yorkshire, so we’re up for it,” he said. “I’m looking forward to a successful partnership with Tom and also doing my first foreign event when we go to Ypres with the BRC.”
Payne says the step up to the BRC will continue his learning curve. He contested 16 rallies last year but knows that he is light on asphalt experience.
“I felt I was still learning last year, despite three wins and the BTRDA title, but then I changed to the ex-Tom Preston car for Malton and Grizedale at the end of the year. The wheelbase was slightly longer and it felt more stable in the corners, it felt very different and
I wanted to get used to it on gravel and asphalt,” he said.
Apart from the Tendring and Clacton and Jim Clark rallies, where he was fourth and fifth last year, his Tarmac experience is restricted to the circuit events at Snetterton and Oulton Park in 2021 when he introduced his Fiesta R5.
“The East Ridings will be only my third closed-road event. It’s certainly different and unlike gravel you can’t move the car about so much,” he added.