Two rally's in 24 hours for Joe Cruttenden

Newhey Rally codriver, Joe Cruttenden

A hectic weekend of rallying resulted in a win for Newhey Rally codriver, Joe Cruttenden. Joe competed on two rally's in 24 hours this weekend, the first was the final round of the BTRDA Rally Championship; The Cambrian Rally, based in Llandudno, using the forests of North Wales. While the second was a night road rally; The Beaver rally based in Pickering using the roads around the North Yorkshire.

Joe started his rallying weekend on Saturday with an 8am start on the Cambrian rally, co driving for Hereford based driver , Simon Dalton, in the Rallyschool prepared VW Lupo. "This was only Simon's second rally and as an instructor with the Rallyschool I was asked to sit next him", said Joe.

The pair had issues on the first stage; the car cut out with an fuel pump issue, this was cured with a help of a good thump from Joe. Problem cured the pair continued the event having dropped five minutes.

The remaining stages saw them climb from last position up the leader board, setting some respectable times. "Simons confidence improved on every stage and more importantly we were enjoying it", Joe commented.

Joe jumped straight out of the Lupo and headed East to North Yorkshire to compete with Matt Broadbent from Shaw, in his Volvo 340. The Beaver road rally used 150 miles of the lanes and roads around the North Yorkshire moors, starting in the Dalby Forest.

"We had planned to enter the Illuminations rally", commented Joe, "but as this event was cancelled we put a late entry in for the Beaver. What we didn't realise was this event was plot and bash, which basically means you are not given the route until various points on the route and we have to plot it as you travel".

The pair dominated the novice class from the start, holding a commanding lead of 25 minutes by the halfway petrol halt: "we got into a good rhythm early on and managed to keep it mistake free to petrol," beemed Joe.

The second half of the event saw some trickier navigation for the pair as tiredness set in, but this didn't stop them from being quickest overall on the first section after petrol.

The pair eneded the rally 20th Overall and first in the novice class by 45 minutes.

"It has been a tough weekend but I have enjoyed every second of it; I can't wait for my bed now", said Joe.