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Bird Takes Third After Keilder Drama |
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Saturday, 24 March 2007 |
Following a dramatic day by his high standards, Penrith rally driver Paul Bird salvaged third place on today's Brick and Steel Border Counties Rally to maintain his Hankook GRC bid.
Driving the Stobart Motorsport Subaru WRC along with Kirkby Stephen co-driver Andy Richardson, the pair overcame a visit to a deep Kielder ditch on SS1 and as a result had to fight their way back after dropping to 15th place, some 40 seconds down.
Bird battled back despite some problems with tyre choice and was in
with a shout of a second place finish when he spun and lost more time
on the penultimate stage. However the organisers then cancelled the
final stage, leaving Bird to claim third place on the second ANCRO
rally in succession.
The result means the Cumbrian pairing move up to second place in the
Championship going into the next round on the tarmac of the Isle of Man
where Bird traditionally goes well.
"After all of the drama of today I'm happy enough with third place.
It's another podium and means we now move up to second place in the
Championship. That's twenty consecutive rally finishes for me which
I'm pretty pleased about and had I chosen the right tyres from the
start perhaps I could have given Steve and Roger a bit more to worry
about." said Bird.
Brick and Steel Border Counties Rally Results
1 Steve Perez/Claire Mole (Ford Focus WRC) – 0:53:43.4
2 Roger Duckworth/Ian Allsop (Subaru Impreza) - 0:54:29.5
3 Paul Bird/Andy Richardson (Subaru Impreza WRC) – 0:55:02.9
4 Dave Weston/Neil Shanks (Ford Focus WRC) - 0:55:03.0
5 Phillip Morrow/Simon Morrow (Mitsubishi EVO 9) – 0:55:12.3
6 Sebastian Ling/Aled Rees (Mitsubishi EVO 9) – 0:55:12.4
7 Julian Reynolds/Patrick Walsh (Mitsubishi EVO 9) – 0:55:13.2
8 Jimmy Girvan/Mike Ramsay (Subaru Impreza) - 0:55:29.2
9 David Bogie/Rob Fagg (Mitsubishi EVO 9GT) - 0:55:40.4
10 Nik Elsmore/Vicky Allen (Mitsubishi EVO 9) - 0:55:53.3
2007 Hankook MSA Gravel Rally Championship Positions
1 Steve Perez 47pts
2 Paul Bird 40pts
3 Phillip Morrow 38pts
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