Class win for Newhey co-driver

Joe Cruttenden, in the newly built Micra Super 1000

Rally co-driver, Joe Cruttenden, from Newhey, took a class win on last weekend’s Jim Clark International Rally. Joe was co driving for Matthew Jackson from Warwickshire, in their newly built Micra Super 1000, a highly modified version of the standard Micra.

The rally, the third round of the British Rally Challenge, but the first round on tarmac, utilised the closed roads around the Scottish town of Duns. The first stage was run through the streets of Dun in front of crowds of rally fans and locals, before heading into the two infamous stages of Bothwell and Abbey St Bathans.

"The car was superb from the start,” said Joe, '”We were happy with our run through Duns town, and happy with second place our class.”

The run through Bothwell and Abbey saw the pair take advantage of the car’s performance and the pair had moved into first place by the time they got to the overnight halt in Kelso.

Saturday morning saw the weather become very changeable; rain would be a crucial issue in the pair’s tyre choice for the day’s five remaining stages on the fast and flowing lanes around Duns.

"We knew we had to retain our lead without doing anything silly on these stages,” said Joe ”The crew in second place we knew to be local and that would be to their advantage.”

He added: "We found that on the longer straights the bigger engine cars we able to take time out of us, but, through the twisty parts of the stage we had the advantage.”

The final stage almost became the undoing of the pair: "We had raced the rally on the Wednesday, at none rally speed and we had decided that the famous Swanton Mill jump could be taken flat out. This was a little optimistic, and thanks to Matt's ability to pull the car back off the grass verge, after a somewhat heavier landing than we had planned, we managed to finish the stage with nothing more than a sore back,” said Joe.

He concluded: "I was more than delighted with the class win and we would like to thanks Mila trading, Tim Payton, John Goff & Rallyschool.co.uk and MSM Co Ltd for their continued support " said Joe " We are now looking at the next round in Ireland, but unfortunately as we are both students we a reliant on funds and will be look for sponsors before we can commit to the rest of the championship.”

The next BRC round takes place in Ulster in August. Visit: http://www.matthewjacksonrallying.co.uk if you would like to get involved in supporting the team