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Fourth for Perez on Swansea Bay Rally |
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Saturday, 19 July 2008 |
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VK Kick Energy rally driver Steve Perez enjoyed his return
to gravel in the 2008 Pirelli MSA Gravel Rally Championship with a superb fourth
place finish overall in today's Swansea Bay Rally.
Driving the Ford Focus WRC, the Chesterfield businessman, along
with Irish co driver Stephen McAuley battled their way up through the field
after a steady start to continue their recent form which saw them win the
Quinton Stages Rally a couple of weeks ago.
After taking it easy in the early stages in the classic Welsh
forests, Perez upped the pace to lie in fifth position after the second service
but a concerted effort on the final loop of stages saw him bag fourth place
overall and with it scored third place points in the ANCRO Championship.
"We were a little steady on the first stage and we had a bit
of a scare in testing on Friday when we met another car on the forest
road. Stage three was OK but on SS4 the tyres were too soft and were
moving around but other than that it was OK."
"The last two stages went better. It was my first time back
out on the gravel on ANCRO for a while so I'm pleased to have got my pace back
up towards the end of the rally" said Perez who was third fastest on stages
five and six.
Final Classification
1, Dave Weston Snr/Aled Davies (Ford Focus WRC) 1:00:21.0
2,
Marcus Dodd/Andrew Bargery (Hyundai Accent WRC) 1:00:41.0
3, Jon Ingram/Ian
Allsop (Subaru S11 WRC) 1:01:05.3
4, Steve Perez/Stephen McAuley
(Ford Focus WRC) 1:01:14.5
5, Julian Reynolds/Patrick Walsh (Subaru
Impreza WRC) 1:01:33.5
6, David Bogie/Kevin Rae (Mitsubishi Evo 9)
1:01:44.8
7, Richard Cathcart/Martin Brady (Mitsubishi Evo IX)
1:01:48.0
8, Damian Cole/Cliff Simmons (Hyundai Accent WRC) 1:02:33.1
9,
Neil McCance/Graham Hopewell (Mitsubishi Evo 9) 1:03:05.9
10, Euan
Thorburn/Claire Mole (Subaru Impreza) 1:03:50.4
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