Busy end-of-year for CA1 Sport service crews
Busy end-of-year for CA1 Sport service crews
Martin Wilkinson and his CA1 Sport rally team are having a busy ending to what has already been a busy year.
Neil Howard Memorial rally
Last weekend two crews were out on 2 very different rallies. The first crew were at Oulton Park on Saturday November 2nd attending the Neil Howard Memorial Stages Rally, looking after Steve Simpson with co-driver Patrick Walsh in the former’s Ford Fiesta R5. Steve and Patrick had a trouble free run, in the R5 ahead of this coming weekend’s Jim Clark rally, and Steve was pleased with the way he settled back into the car after quite a long layoff. He gained in both confidence and speed throughout the day, and the crew were delighted to be in the lead at the end of a successful day. This was the pair’s third win on this event.
Malton Forest Stages Rally
Sunday November 3rd saw the CA1 Sport service crew setting up their location in Adderstone Field in the middle of Dalby Forest– venue for the service area on the popular Malton Forest Stages rally held in North Yorkshire. The crew were looking after two crews, both in Ford Fiesta WRC cars, one for Tom Preston and Carl Williamson, and a second similar car for Steve Petch and Michael Wilkinson.
Tom Preston and Carl Williamson started well, with a 3rd place on stage 1 (Langdale) followed by a safe 4th place on ss2 (Gale Rigg); but as ever in rallying, disappointment beset the crew on the next stage in Cropton when Tom went wide on a wet slippery corner under the trees and slid a back wheel into a ditch, smashing the transmission as the back wheels dropped into a large hole at the bottom of the ditch.
But there was better news for Petch and Wilkinson – they had a trouble free run to finish 3rd overall, behind Ollie Mellors/ Ian Windress (Proton Iriz R5) and Charles Payne/ Patrick Walsh (Ford Fiesta RS WRC) out of a quality entry of 74 cars.
Preview Jim Clark rally
Next weekend, the CA1 team are travelling to the Borders to service for Steve Simpson and regular co-driver Patrick Walsh, who are taking part in the Jim Clark rally, which returns to the rally calendar after taking a sabbatical in recent years. The rally is centred on Duns in the Scottish Borders, and runs on closed public road. The event takes place on Friday and Saturday November 8th and 9th, with some stages taking place into the dark on Friday evening.
More details at https://jimclarkrally.org/ including entry list and spectator information.
Looking even further ahead, the next event for cars run by the Fuchs-backed CA1 Sport team will be the Hippo Grizedale Stages rally, when event sponsor Tom Preston with Carl Williamson, and Steve Petch and co-driver Michael Wilkinson, are both looking to end their seasons on a high. The rally is on December 7th, more details can be found at https://www.grizedalestages.co.uk/
