Sunday 26 February 2012

Wright hoping to get rally season back on track in Cumbria

Rally driver David Wright is targeting a good finish on round two of the BTRDA rally championship, the Malcolm Wilson rally, next weekend after a disappointing retirement on the opening round.

In treacherous conditions Wright, from Bentham, survived numerous spins in his Kumho, Proflex, Drenth, Grove Hill Garage and York Brewery-backed Mitsubishi Evo 9 before having to stop when a puncture caused damage to the suspension.

The Malcolm Wilson rally is Wright’s local event and he usually goes well on it. The event uses the famous Grizedale forest where Wright took a victory on last year’s Grizedale Stages rally.

“I really need to get a decent haul of points next weekend after failing to finish the first event,” said Wright. “The event uses some of my favourite stages in the country, I especially like Grizedale – it’s a place where you can gain a large amount of time if you push hard and have a good run.”

“Hopefully conditions will be better than they were for round one, it wasn’t much fun driving on sheet ice, we span five times on one stage, there was just no grip at all.”

“The rally has attracted a top quality entry so I’m going to have to be flat out from the start to try and get up to the top end of the leaderboard.”

The rally starts on Saturday morning from Cockermouth and the crews will battle over seven stages in Whinlatter, Greystoke, Grizedale and Wythop forests.