Cruttenden moves into second place

Joe Cruttenden and Matt Griffin in the Nottinghamshire based Dukeries Rally

A third place in the Nottinghamshire based Dukeries Rally, saw 19 year old Joe Cruttenden move into second place in the BTRDA Rally First Championship. Joe, from Newhey, co-driving for Matt Griffin from Blackburn in their Yellow 1400cc Lupo, knew that they had to get a good result to take them one step nearer to winning the championship and the prize of free entry into all of next year's rounds.

"As we are both students, funding for next year is very important to us and the prize of free entry would certainly help", said Joe. "And on the fast, sandy stages of the Sherwood, forests we knew we could use the speed of the Lupo to our advantage."

The day started well, setting some good times on the first two stages in the famous Sherwood forest, but a moment on stage 3, saw the pair hit a bank on the outside if a corner, almost pushing the bumper back into the radiator. Going in to service the pair were holding third place.

They increased the pace through stage 4 and almost ended in a large hole on the outside of the finish of stage 5, but they managed to carry their speed through and drove out the other side.

Stage 7 saw them pick up their third puncture in as many events, which lost them 16 seconds, but despite this and the strange handling brought on by now having different tyre treads on the front, they had good runs through the final two stages.

“We thought we had finished second”, said Joe, “but a corrected time for the third place car, disappointingly dropped us back to third. The most important thing is that we have now moved one place further up the championship.”

The next round is the Quinton Rally in mid Wales, in July, but in the meantime Joe is competing on the Carwent Stages in South Wales this coming weekend and then he will be part of the UCLAN University Formula Ford team, at Silverstone.

Anyone wishing to know more about sponsoring Cruttenden and Griffin in their distinctive yellow Lupo, should email Joe:

joecruttenden@hotmail.com