Cruttenden's Rally round-up

Joe Cruttenden and Matt Griffin's car in action

Things started to look up again for Newhey rally co-driver Joe Cruttenden, in his quest to retain the BTRDA Rally Championship.

Sat along side Matt Griffin, the pair were competing in the Dukeries rally, the 4th round of the BTRDA Rally First championship, in their RallyschoolUK supported VW Lupo.

The rally based in Southall, Nottinghamshire, used the fast sandy tracks of the famous forests once used by Robin Hood!

They hoped the rain the previous few days would have kept the dust down a little.

But this was not the case.

Cruttenden said: “We struggled a bit and were off the pace this weekend.

“I think after the issues we had on the previous two rounds, Matt’s confidence was low and he look a while to get into the flow which resulted in us spending most of the event in forth place.”

The rally consisted of 10 stages, with a service halt after the 5th stage.

At service the pair had a chat with team manager John Goff, which after which they picked up the pace.

And then on stage 9, there closest rival rolled his Nova, giving the Joe and Matt third place.

Cruttenden said: “It’s never nice to see a competitor roll.

“But the pressure was on and he had the misfortune to hit a pothole on a fast corner and flip the car over.”

The pair finished third in class, which keeps them in a challenging position with 3 rounds still to go.

With the next round on the tarmac and forest stages of the Army ranges of mid Wales in July

This weekend sees Cruttenden compete in the Rally of the Midlands on the Friday and Saturday in the MDS Tow bar supported Micra, before travelling down to Wales, to compete in an event on the Sunday.