Official rally reports of rally driver Ryan Champion

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Tesco 99 Octane MSA British Rally Championship Round 6 Wales Rally GB - December 1st - 3rd

CHAMPION TAKES THIRD VICTORY OF THE SEASON ON WALES RALLY GB

This weekend saw the third Tesco 99 MSA British Rally Championship victory of the season for the Mitsubishi Motors UK Works Rally Team driver Ryan Champion (from Castleton) and his co-driver Craig Thorley (from Pocklington) when they won the sixth and final round on the Wales Rally of Great Britain.

With the event also being the last round of the World Rally Championship the route comprised 242 competitive miles in the South Wales forests, making it the longest and most demanding rally in the British series. Champion started the event looking to make it a clean sweep in all three of the season’s gravel surface events, having won the Pirelli Rally in May and the Rally Yorkshire in October. He was also keen to pitch himself against many of the overseas drivers in similar Group N Production Class machinery.

The rally began with a ceremonial start from Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium on Thursday evening, the first leg of competition starting on Friday morning with six stages in the forests to the north east of Swansea. The initial loop of three stages saw Champion take things cautiously, the Yorkshireman looking to keep out of problems right from the start, albeit suffering a puncture at the end of the first stage. However, his pace was still enough to see them second of the British Championship runners just behind Stuart Jones, also in a Mitsubishi and enabled them to hold fifth position in Group N.

Champion began to increase his pace for the second run through the same three stages in the afternoon taking the lead on stage five, when Jones stopped due to a faulty electrical sensor. Champion also had a scare on the same stage when he bent his car’s intercooler having hit a severe bump in the road. Then, on an extremely slippery and narrow section at the end of SS6, he spun and dropped 30 seconds, letting the Mitsubishi of Gwyndaf Evans past and into first place as a result.

Day two comprised another three stages run twice, this time in the Brecon Beacons – plus a spectacular indoor stage at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium that evening. Although starting the day in the lead, Evans suddenly found he was losing gears and after just one stage his car came to a standstill on the road section to SS8. As cars pulled into the Swansea service halt following SS9 Champion found he was in front by a healthy margin of nearly half a minute and backed off a little to conserve his car and to make sure he didn't make any mistakes – especially in the rougher and more slippery sections.

After running the morning’s three stages again in the afternoon and entertaining the crowds with an impressive display of driving in the stadium that evening, Champion stretched his BRC lead to over one and a half minutes as he brought the works Mitsubishi back to Swansea for the overnight halt.

Although finding it difficult to establish a rhythm over the final four rain-swept stages of Brechfa and Trawscoed on Sunday morning, Champion maintained his position and things looked good for this third British Championship victory of the season. But then on the 17th and final stage he saw the car’s temperature gauge start to climb. A few miles later the engine started to lose power and although stopping to add water there appeared to be no cure. Even after nursing the car though the remainder of the stage, the engine eventually overheated on the road section back to the service halt. Initially things looked grim, but International rally regulations allow retired cars to be transported to the finish and still feature in the results, although a penalty of five minutes, plus the time of the fastest car in the class, is applied for each non-completed stage. As the car had expired in the final throes of the event a penalty for one stage was added to the Mitsubishi team’s time, but as Champion had by then amassed a lead of over five and a half minutes, his lead was safe and the win he and the team has wanted so much was secure. He also ended the event fourth in the Production Class and in an excellent 16th place overall.
“I’m so pleased to have won the final round of the British Championship. We could have done without the last stage dramas though! My focus throughout the event was to achieve this result and just let the others around me get on with their own events. It’s a great end to what has been a great season for Craig and I and I really must thank the team for all they have done - for giving me their utmost support, providing me with the best car in the championship and for the opportunity to compete for the British title.”