Cruttenden’s rally round up

Joe Cruttenden and his Driver Matt Griffin competed in their Rally School UK supported VW Lupo

Joe Cruttenden, from Newhey, added two more rallies to his CV in the last two weekends.

His first rally was a round of the BTRDA Rally First championship, the Quinton Stages based in Llandovery, Cruttenden and his Driver Matt Griffin competed in their Rally School UK supported VW Lupo.

Seven Stages over the Army Ranges of Epynt, saw the duo spend the day battling for third place and with only the final stage to go they held a two second gap to the Nissan Micra in 4th place,

“We removed from the car everything that wasn't needed for the final stage,” said Cruttenden “Spare wheel, jack, coats, even the bottles of drinking water we were carrying. It all went out of the door.”

Despite their efforts and new tyres on the front, the pair took a jump mid stage too fast, which resulted in a puncture in one of the newly fitted tyres and loosing third place by 12 seconds.

His second rally in as many weeks came this weekend when Cruttenden answered a call from Essex based driver, Dave Wheeler, to co-drive for him in Belgium, on the Short Rally Oudenburg-Jabbeke.

”I have serviced in Belgium, but never competed so I jumped at the chance to compete there,” said Cruttenden. “The Belgium's love there rallying and British crews enjoy going over there to compete, mainly down to the great hospitality,” he added

The rally was based around Oudenburg, a small town 10KM south of Ostende, with some stages 17km long, the pair in the PEC built Peugeot 106 finished the event second in class, despite acquiring a fractured petrol tank and breaking the front anti-roll bar.

Cruttenden’s next event will be the Richard Burns Memorial Rally in August.