Sunday 6 March 2011

Cristofaro overcomes illness to take fourth in class on Malcolm Wilson rally

Nick Cristofaro continued his 2011 rally programme last weekend on the Malcolm Wilson rally in Cumbria, round two of the BTRDA championship. Despite being unwell both in the run up to the event and on the event itself he battled through to take an encouraging fourth in class.

The event started with three stages in Comb, Hobcarton and Greystoke. Cristofaro and co-driver Rob Fagg successfully completed the tests in fifth place even though they were using old tyres on their TEG Sport, Pirelli, Millers Oils, Genpower UK, Autoglym, EKM Systems and NickyGrist.com-supported Ford Fiesta ST.

"Our times were ok on the first three stages but we suffered from a lack of grip," said Cristofaro.

"We’re running on a very tight budget so to save money we used tyres from our last event rather than the usual new ones, I think our times would have been much better on fresh rubber."

The next two stages were in the notoriously tricky Grizedale forest and Cristofaro maintained his fifth in class although he was hampered by brake problems.

Two stages in Greystoke and Wythop completed the rally and Cristofaro moved up to fourth as the crews headed to the rally finish in Cockermouth town centre.

"We lost more time in Grizedale with the brake troubles and unfortunately with just my dad servicing for me there was no time to replace both front calipers so we went in to the last two stages with uneven braking which caused problems when slowing for the corners."

"I’m happy to get to the finish though and fourth in class is quite a good result considering the car problems and my illness."

After three events in less than a month Cristofaro now has a short break from rally action until he resumes his British Rally Championship challenge in April on the Bulldog rally.

Please visit http://www.nickcristofaro.co.uk/ for further information.