Welsh rally crew win national series with time to spare
publication date: Aug 26, 2009
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author/source: Gary Jones
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| A Welsh based rally crew has won this year’s Fiesta Sporting Trophy championship, well before the season is over. The latest round of the British and Irish Rally Championship took place over the weekend with the Toddsleap.com Ulster International Rally. The event was a round of the UK Fiesta Sporting Championship as well as the Irish series and top finishers in both championships were Craig Breen co-driven by Gareth Roberts from Bronwydd. The duo took first overall in the Fiestas and in the process became the British and Irish Fiesta Sporting Trophy (FST) champions for 2009 with still the Trackrod Rally round in Yorkshire to go in September in hand. Gareth said, “We are happy to have won both the British and Irish series, we now move on to the International FST we won the last round in Finland a few weeks ago in this car, but in Spain we will be using the new R2 Fiesta if we take a win out there the final round of that series is our home round of the WRC the Rally Great Britain which is on my doorstep here in Carmarthenshire so it would be nice if we could win here as well in the R2, but the competition is very strong in that series and a good recce is vital so fingers crossed ”. Also out from Bronwydd was Dai Roberts co-driving for Kyle Orr in a Fiesta but with the gearbox giving up after only three stages the pair were forced to retire from the rally. In the BRC Mark Higgins took maximum points and finished 4th overall in his Subaru Impreza GpN after Keith Cronin retired, but finishing just 8.9 seconds behind Higgins was Gwyndaf Evans on a one off drive in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo9. The overall winner of the event was Eugene Donnelly in his Skoda Fabia WRC finishing just 14.1 seconds ahead of Gareth McHale in a Ford Focus WRC, Mc Hale started the final stage with a half second advantage on Donnely but he overshot a crossroads and the rally win was over leaving the Skoda driver to spray the champagne on his home event. Derek McGarrity finished third a further 1 minute 58.1 seconds down on McHale. |
| © Image Gary Jones |
