IRDC's 2012 Driver Improvement Scheme

The 2012 MSA British Rally championship is now at its mid-point, with three rounds of the well supported six-round series already run; rallies Sunseeker, Bulldog and Pirelli and the top-ten standings in the International Rally Driver's Club (IRDC) popular Driver Improvement Award have changed dramatically.

Joint leaders at the top of the league table in the premier International class of the IRDC's scheme are now Mark Donnelly from Northern Ireland sharing the number one position with Finland's Jarkko Nikara, driving Renault Clio R3 and Citroen DS3 R3T respectively in class 5 of the championship.

Both these front running drivers have sampled overall success in the British Rally Championship already this year with Donnelly taking an overall win on the Rallye Sunseeker and an ultra-consistent Nikara taking podium places on both the Bulldog and Pirelli Internationals.

In third place of the IRDC award scheme's leader board is another Finn and winner of the 2011 Pirelli Star Driver competition Jukka Korhonen, driving a Skoda Fabia R2 in class six of the championship. Jukka's prize for winning the Pirelli scheme is a fully supported drive in the 2012 MSA British Rally Championship.

The closely contested 'Challenge' class of the Driver Improvement Scheme, newly introduced for this season, is now led by Russ Thompson from James Ford in second place with Simon Moore and Richard Sykes locked in joint third place; second place driver James Ford epitomising the spirit of the 'Challenge class' by driving a 35 year old Ford Escort Mk 2!

The next round of the championship is the Jim Clark International based at Kelso Racecourse, the asphalt 160 stage mile rally will run over the Jubilee bank holiday weekend, 1st - 3rd June, moving the MSA British Rally Championship to its two-thirds stage.

29th May, 2012