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Pinchin takes the honours in BETTA Somerset Stages Rally

16/04/2014
by Andrew TradeWeb Support

There was a third different winner in consecutive rounds of the 2014 Morris Lubricants BTRDA 1400 Championship as the series moved to the BETTA Somerset Stages last Saturday.

 

After winning the second round on the Malcolm Wilson Rally, York’s Dave Bennett and Alistair McNeil had topped the points table, but they were to experience the tougher side of the sport when the coil failed on their Vauxhall Corsa on the very first stage putting them out of the event.

 

Taking immediate advantage of the situation were Darren Pinchin and Karen Jenkins in their Proton Satria who have twice won the 1400 Championship in 2008 and 2011.

 

Pinchin from Cheltenham and Jenkins from Cinderford were the only 1400 competitors competing who had previously won the Somerset Stages in 2010 and they clearly felt at home as they charged through the challenging 3.7 miles tarmac Porlock Toll Road stage in 3 mins 57 secs to take the lead, a position they weren’t going to relinquish over the remaining 11 stages.

 

Behind them a real battle was taking place as five crews endeavoured to reach the podium but with there never being more than 45 seconds between them all throughout the day no one was giving anything away.

 

Dan Gray/Matt Rogers held the early advantage in the Peugeot 106 but, after holding third for most of day, hit problems on the final stage and finished fifth.

 

Justin Lawson/Paul Hargreaves [Vauxhall Nova] started well but after a spin on stage five slipped back to fifth before climbing back to fourth. This was where they would have remained had Gray not had his last stage problems and so Lawson was able to take the final step on the podium.

 

However, outside of Pinchin, the best performance of the day came from Aylesbury’s Joe Evett with co-driver Calvin Houldsworth. Evett, who was the Rally First Champion in 2013, which is a class for standard cars, had spent the winter building a new more powerful MG ZR and this was their first outing of the year.

 

Taking the first two stages carefully, they were in 13th place but in two more stages had moved rapidly into fourth place and then were up to second place by stage seven, a position they held comfortably until the finish to achieve a remarkable result

and set down a marker to the rest for the remainder of the year.

 

With Lawson and Hargreaves having now achieved a fourth, second and third place over the three rounds, the Warrington pairing have moved into top spot in the championship table.

 

With their considerable experience, they are going to be very hard to shift as the year progresses and consistency has always proven to bring success in this championship.

 

They now hold a 12 point advantage over Ludlow’s Dave Brick and Rob Woodhouse in their Vauxhall Nova while Marcel Freling and Karen Robinson lie third two points behind with their three scores in their MG ZR.

 

Pinchin’s second score moves him into sixth place and, as a twice champion already, certainly can’t be discounted from taking a third title.

 

The Championship next makes it first journey of the year into Wales for the fourth round on May 17, with the Plains Rally based in Welshpool and using the classic Mid Wales stages of Garthieniog and Dyfi.

 

Further details can be found on the championship website www.btrdarally.com and

 

 

 

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