Scintillating start to 2017 season for Fuchs-supported drivers

This weekend’s Scottish Rally Championship opener, the Snowman Rally based in Inverness, proved to be a happy hunting ground for the Fuchs-supported team at CA1 Sport and their experienced Skoda R5 driver David Bogie. Bogie, with regular co-driver Kevin Rae, tied on the first stage with Jock Armstrong (Subaru) and Shaun Sinclair (Subaru), but the pair were then never headed on the remaining stages to win by 58 seconds from Shaun Sinclair. Several of the top crews beat the bogey times for a couple of stages, such was the tremendous battle at the front for supremacy.

Also in rallying, Fuchs-supported driver Kim Gray, together with co-driver Tom Murphy, competed on the Riponian rally run in the North Yorkshire forests. At the finish, Kim described the stages as ‘lovely-but-slippy’, a condition known to all off-road competitors! Their day was straight forward and uncomplicated except for a moment when the pair were almost caught out by the low February sun as they landed over a crest, and then on the next long stage (Cropton 2) caught up with a crew who had re-joined in front of them after having a minor indiscretion involving a ditch, and had to follow on the narrow track for a couple of miles before they could safely get past. Kim was extremely pleased with her season opener and how well she had settled back into the car after a 3 month lay-off, a feeling which was borne out by the duo winning their class by 1 minute 42 seconds.

Blyton Park Rallycross circuit in Lincolnshire was the venue for a test day on Sunday organised by the BTRDA Clubmans Rallycross committee, and several drivers from the Fuchs-supported Super National class were out testing before the first event (also at Blyton Park) on March 12th. Also testing out her new BMW Mini was the younger member of the Bellerby sisters, eighteen year old Drew. Although the car was in basic trim on Sunday, it will be supercharged and running in the higher spec class in the Championship. Although steady-ish to begin with, Drew quickly got to grips with her new car, and is looking forward to the season opener at Croft circuit on March 19th.