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Marcus Dodd
and Andrew Bargery were crowned the 2007 Hankook MSA Gravel Rally Champions as
they finished as the first championship registered crew and second overall on
The Malton Killarney Forestry Stages Rally today (Sunday 2
September).
Dodd
and Bargery finished just 15 seconds behind event winner and 2007 Hankook Irish
National Forestry Rally champions Stephen Moore and Greg Shinnors in their
Hyundai Accent WRC to claim the title for a third time and wrap-up the honours
with one round still remaining.
Their
closest title rivals, Steve Perez and Claire Mole, finished second in the
championship and third overall in their Ford Focus WRC, just 51 seconds behind
Dodd/Bargery. Perez had lost around 50 seconds on stage one with a puncture to
put him 14th on the leaderboard but he managed to haul himself back
up to fourth overall after stage four before eventually climbing to
third.
“It’s
been rough, but we had a steady run and no problems,” Dodd said. “It would have
been nice to have had more of a go at the locals but we had to think about the
championship. For a few seconds it would have been stupid to try too hard and
throw it all away, we were here to beat Steve (Perez).
“I’m
elated to win the championship for a third time. It’s great to win it on the
penultimate round but it would have been nice to take it down to the final
round, the Bulldog Rally, as that’s a bit special to me.”
Subaru
crew Jock Armstrong and Kirsty Riddick finished third in the championship, fifth
overall and the already crowned Subaru Trophy champions won the trophy section
and were second Group N overall as they had a smooth run across the 120km of
forest gravel stages, which were slippery following a steady drizzle throughout
the day.
Jonathan
Sparks and Bradley Magnus brought home their Mitsubishi Evo 7 12thrd overall and fourth in class seven in their
Hyundai Accent WRC after struggling without a turbo for five of the seven
stages.
overall and fifth in class eight with a problem-free run whilst Harry Dodd and
Richard Skinner were the final MSA National Championship crew to be classified
as they finished 23
Eight
MSA National Gravel Rally Championship crews made the start of the
Killarney-based rally, which was included in the series calendar for the first
time.
Alan
Cookson and Julian Wilkinson retired on stage five with a broken front
suspension on their Subaru Impreza after earlier losing their brakes, while
Trevor Martin and Ray Cleghorn failed to finish as they went off on stage four
in their Subaru. Rod Bennett and Henry Richardson broke the driveshaft on their
Fiat Stilo in stage five.
Despite
the title already been claimed, there are still plenty of class honours to fight
for on the final round of the 2007 Hankook MSA Gravel Rally Championship, the
Oswestry-based Bulldog Rally which takes place on Saturday 20
October.
Championship Positions and other information is available at
www.gravelrally.co.uk.
Pictures courtesy of www.cmwi.net
are available upon request.
Thanks to Amanda
Cornforth for acting in the role as Deputy ANCRO Press Officer on the event: Tel: + 44 (0) 7947 428920, Email:
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2007 Calendar
23/24
February
Rally Sunseeker (Bournemouth)
24
March
Brick and Steel Border Counties Rally
(Jedburgh)
11/12
May
RBS International Manx Rally (Douglas)
2
June
Severn
Valley
Stages Rally (Builth Wells)
21
July
Swansea
Bay
National Rally (Swansea)
2
September
Killarney
Forest
Stages Rally (Killarney)
20 October
Bulldog Rally (Oswestry)
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