It was one of those weekends…coverage was bad and I was unable to blog as much as I would have liked…

It was going so well!

The Pirelli rally had started really well, we were seven seconds behind Gwyndaf and things were going really well. We turned up the wick on the next test and set the fastest stage times on the second and third stage. As we came back into service, we were in the overall lead of the rally.

I was pushing hard on SS2, the stage was quite slippy and being first on the road meant that I was sweeping the loose gravel off the surface.

The historic cars who had led the main field away had set some interesting lines in the stages but unfortunately their lines were of no help to me.

On stage three I was in ‘the zone’, everything felt good and we set a good steady pace and with it came the fastest stage time.

On the Saturday stages, we were third fastest on the first test (SS4) out and I was quite pleased as we had the overall lead of the rally from Gwyndaf Evans, who lay in second place.

The next two stages, saw us try hard and as we came into service, we remained at the head of the field and leading the rally overall. There was also an issue with the time on stage one and this meant that 50 seconds had been wiped off our overall lead. This meant we had a lead of just over 20 seconds from Evans.

Tyre wear started to be a problem in the latter stages of the rally and we lost some time with this problem. We were also carrying two spares and we were swapping these over between stages to try and work around this.

But was worse luck was to come for me and the rest of the team. We went into the final stage of the rally with a 17 second lead over Gwyndaf Evans and we knew it would be close but were confident of getting the rally win.

Lady luck was not to be on our side, as firstly we suffered a puncture, which in turn damaged a wiring loom and we came to a halt about 300 yards from the finish line of the final stage.

Absolutely gutted!

Hopefully we have better luck on the Jim Clark Rally at the end of May.

Thanks for all your support in the build-up and during the rally, it is much appreciated.

Keep the race in its place and I’ll see you on the stages!

Keith