Official rally reports of rally driver Ryan Champion

Home |

Contact Me |

About Me |

Photo Gallery |

Rally Reports |

23/07/05 Swansea Bay Rally - Mitsubishi Ralliart Evo Challenge Round 6

CHAMPION STILL ON COURSE FOR CHAMPIONSHIP

Castleton's Ryan Champion and co driver Craig Thorley from York continue to lead the Mitsubishi Ralliart Evolution Challenge with just two rounds remaining, despite having a difficult Swansea Bay Rally at the weekend.

The thirty year old Yorkshireman started the Welsh event very much with the championship in mind, knowing that it was more important to come away with a good points finish rather than risking everything to win. However, on the very first stage that strategy was thrown of course when a fuel pump problem cost Champion a huge forty five seconds in just six miles.

This was compounded on the very next stage when the pair caught title rival Nik Elsmore cruising through the stage with transmission problems. The conditions were so dry and dusty that Ryan could not get anywhere near to the troubled Mitsubishi in front to try and get past and in fact had to keep stopping just to see the road ahead. By the time they reached the end of the stage another five miles on, Champion had dropped another forty seconds behind his other championship rivals, Stuart Jones and Phillip Morrow.

Now very much at the bottom end of the Mitsubishi runners, Ryan knew he had to push hard over the remaining five stages in order to climb as far back up the order as possible to salvage as many points as he could in the title battle. Three fastest times and two second fastest times showed just what might have been and amazingly Champion ended the event as fourth Mitsubishi contender.
Ryan said at the finish: "I'm quite relieved to get back up to fourth after the problems we had. From a Evo Championship point of view I would have been happy with a top three finish here but as it was we've had to try pretty hard today just to finish fourth! The main thing is Craig and I are still leading the Championship and we've shown our speed today when we needed to. Now we just have to make sure of another strong finish on the Park Systems Rally in a few weeks." The penultimate round of the Mitsubishi Ralliart Evolution Challenge, the Park Systems Rally, takes place in the Galloway Forests in south west Scotland on September 10th.