Brave Brown has successful new car debut in Wales

Photo: Jason Evans Photography

Steve Brown in action during last weekend’s Tour of Epynt Rally

The debut of new car can sometimes be a troublesome affair, but Rochdale’s Nissan Kit Car pilot Steve Brown guided his all new class B9 Micra to a creditable fourth in class and 59th overall at the Melvyn Evans Motorsport Tour of Epynt Rally last weekend. Thanks mainly to the weather, the opening round of the REIS MSA Ashpalt Rally Championship would provide a tougher than usual start to the season in Wales, but Brown took it all in his stride to finish the rain soaked event with a solid start for his championship campaign.

The 27-year-old has spent the last few years building the all new car for this upcoming season and used the Llandovery based event as the car's first outing. Having tested the car over just a handful of miles, Brown headed to the Epynt Military Ranges with simply a finish in mind. The new-for-2015 Kit Car had a lot to cope with as the roads around the Welsh mountain roads are notorious for their tricky nature. With torrential rain the night before and during the morning of the event, Brown could have been forgiven for easing his way around the first few stages of the day.

Far from it however, as he and co-driver Paul Stringer set a top 50 stage time overall on the opening stage of the event, from a starting position of 103. Impressive stuff of course, especially as they had picked up a puncture toward the end of the test. With the second stage cancelled due to an incident, Brown levelled his pace throughout the remaining stages of the day to return to the Llandovery finish with a good start to the long season ahead.

“I’m overjoyed to have got to the finish of the event without any real problems with the car” said Brown. “It’s been a real labour of love to build and it’s great to see it all come together at last. There is a lot of potential with the car too and we were quite conservative with our pace to ensure we got to the end today. Getting competitive miles under my belt was key, so we certainly achieved our goal this weekend. I have to say I’m really looking forward to the next round at the Isle of Man in May.”

Brown will also attempt to start selected gravel events in his old car during the year in a bid to qualify for the all new BTRDA Rally Challenge which has points scoring rounds on both asphalt and forest events.

Brown is supported in 2015 by Questmead Ltd, Mintex, Fuchs Titan, PIAA, 710 oils, Power Maxed and SIX80 Limited.