Kick Energy Fiesta Sport Trophy UK Championship
Round 2 - Bulldog Rally, North Wales - Saturday 28th March 200
Following his problematic run on the opening round of the Kick Energy Fiesta Sport Trophy UK Championship (FST), Galway driver Ross Forde was hoping for better luck on last weekend's Bulldog Rally.
With the necessary alterations made to his Motorsport Ireland and Irish Sports Council-backed Ford Fiesta, and with a change in co-driver, Forde was looking for a good run on the second round of the championship.
Despite this being the first time that Forde has rallied in the forests of North Wales, he and co-driver Gary McElhinney, were happy that their M-Sport-run car was working well throughout the opening stages, even though they were losing time to the leaders.
With this in mind, Forde pushed a little too hard on the following stages as he explained:
"We hit a rock on the third stage and thought we'd got a puncture, so we backed off a bit but we were fourth fastest, so we must have been doing something right! On stage four we had a bit of a moment, where we went up onto two wheels but we were fine and were again joint fourth fastest."
Having a far from trouble-free day, Forde then suffered from a broken driveshaft on the sixth stage and also was hampered by a lack of brakes, but they made it through the finish to complete the rally in sixth place in the FST and 22nd overall.
Forde, who holds sixth place in the standings, and who is hoping to contest the whole of the Fiesta championship, will next be in action in the Carlisle based Pirelli International Rally on April 17/18.
Results:
1, Matt Edwards/Andy Murphy 53m 46.4s
2, Craig Breen/Gareth Roberts 54:11.5
3, Mark Donnelly/Paddy Robinson 55:50.3
4, Kris Hall/Robbie Durant 55:53.3
5, Kyle Orr/Robb Fagg 55:56.3
6, Ross Forde/Gary McElhinney 56:11.9
7, Rory Hall/Lee Burgess 56:30.9
8, Luke Francis/Jon Madoc-Jones 56:33.4
9, Barry Greer/John Lemon 56:56.9
10, Stevie Brown/Andrew Roughead 57:05.0
Championship Positions
1, Matt Edwards 55
2, Kris Hall 50
3, Mark Donnelly 42
4, Kyle Orr 40
5, Barry Greer 30
6, Ross Forde 26
7, Craig Breen 25
8, Rory Hall 25
9, John Boyd 22
10, Martyn Jones 22
Picture attached courtesy of Jakob Ebrey
Further information is available at
www.fiestasportingtrophy.co.uk
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