Joe Cruttenden - rally update

Joe Cruttenden's rallying season kicked off again

Joe Cruttenden's rallying season kicked off again  last weekend with a visit to the lanes of Northern Ireland to compete in the Ulster rally. Joe, from Newhey was co-driving for Adam Taylor in the Taylor Motorsport (Preston) prepared Ford Fiesta ST.

Based in Antrim the rally, the penultimate round of the BRC Challenge, ran over 2 days on the closed roads and lanes around the northern coast and Lough Neagh.

Joe, was drafted in to the team for his experience to sit with Adam on his first closed road tarmac event, having only competed on forest stages previously; Joe's knowledge of the area and the event experience was required to guide Adam through this fast and undulating rally.

Over 150 cars, ranging from historic through modern and onto WRC rally cars competed, probably the best support rally of the season.

After a minor issue at scrutineering when the battery terminal failed, the pair competed on the Friday afternoon/night stages problem free. "We took the first few stages steady at first", said Joe. "Adam had to become familiar with full the use rally pace notes we had made the day before and to make a mistake this early into the event and not to take the points he needed would have been a disaster."

Friday night saw the pair lying 8th in the BRC Challenge and 4th in class with the knowledge they would need to push hard during the daylight stages of Saturday. With no major problems, which seemed to befall other competers, the pair made steady progress up the leaderboard to finish 5th overall and 3rd in class, again earning Adam more valuable championship points.

"We had we had a great weekend and achieved more than we expected', said Joe. "It was such a hot day on Saturday, at one point the road, which was newly laid, tarmac had melted and we were running through what seemed like treacle.

"Adam had a great drive on his first tarmac road event and hopefully he learnt a lot for the future."

The next round will be the Trackrod Yorkshire rally, with the championship wide open, points there will be very important.