Joe Cruttenden at TAC Rally, Tielt

Newhey International rally co-driver, Joe Cruttenden, competing in the second round of the Belgian Rally Championship on the TAC Rally based in the town of Tielt

Last weekend saw Newhey International rally co-driver, Joe Cruttenden, compete in the second round of the Belgian Rally Championship on the TAC Rally based in the town of Tielt.

Joe and driver, Jamie Brown, from Norfolk, were competing in the Belgium Junior Championship in their Ford Fiesta R2.

After a seventh place in the first round the pair were hoping to improve on this round and secure valuable points.

"We are the only UK team competing in the championship, so we have a slight disadvantage as the public roads they use for the stages aren’t as familiar for us,"   said Joe.

On the first stage the crew had issues with the varying grip levels of the farming roads, this resulted in an overshoot on stage 1 which saw them drop 20 seconds, but despite that they moved into fifth place in the class.

On stage 3 another over shoot, at a tricky junction, resulted in them dropping a few more seconds.

Pushing hard they were able to move up the leader board and going into stage 10 they were fourth in the junior class, thirrd Fiesta and 35th overall, but on this stage they lost second gear. Despite that they retained their speed and retained the class and overall position.

"A great weekend and a result we are both very happy with," said Joe. "We now need to get the gearbox ready for the next round which is only three weeks away."

Next weekend Joe returns to road rallying when he competes on Morecambe Car Clubs ‘Illuminations Rally’ with local driver Matthew Broadbent.