When the 2006 ANCRO National Gravel rally series heads to its penultimate round, the Park Systems Rally, this weekend, SG Petch Motorsport driver Stephen Petch Junior will be hoping to put his recent experiences on the Isle of Man behind him and focus on the 2006 Evo Cup, a series in which Stephen currently lies 2nd, 10 points of the lead.
After winning the last round of the Mitsubishi Evo cup, back on July’s dusty Swansea Bay Rally in Wales, Stephen experienced a painful Rally Isle of Man only 1 week later. After being delayed early on due to accidents ahead of him, Stephen would himself have a huge crash when his SG Petch Scalextric Team Mitsubishi Evo IX was caught out in the tricky conditions on one of the most challenging rounds of the Tesco 99 Octane MSA British Rally Championship.
Stephen, co-driven as ever by Michael Wilkinson, lost control of the Mitsubishi on an extremely slippery section, and after mounting an embankment the pair came to a very sudden halt against a rock wall. Although the car was pretty badly damaged the pair escaped unscathed, but would be very painful for a couple of weeks after the accident.
With the car not yet ready the team must use another Mitsubishi for this weekends event, presenting Stephen with yet another handicap ahead of round 6 of the Mitsubishi Cup as he will need to adjust to the new car as he regains confidence on the events tricky and often rough surfaces.
The Yorkshireman commented: “The Park Systems is not too far from my home, compared to the events in Wales, and I’m hoping to regain my confidence pretty quickly on this event. We had a pretty troubled run here last yea, loosing time with a lot of punctures, but I’m hoping we can reverse that this weekend. It’s also a gravel event, and I feel a lot more confident on the loose stuff.”
The 2006 Park Systems Rally, round 7 of the ANCRO Gravel Rally Championship, begins at 9am from Riverside, Newton Stuart, with the first car expected back at the finish at around 4:30pm.
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