BRC - Wilson wins for M-Sport in Scotland
Round three of the Championship and a new addition for 2021, the Grampian Forest Rally based in Aberdeen, 14th, August, with the forest tracks of Fetteresso, Durris and Drumtochty providing the competitive route of 44 miles, interlinked with an extremely compact liaison route.
When time was called, it was M-Sport's Chief Test Driver Matthew Wilson, co-driven by Elliott Edmondson, who stormed to his first BRC victory since 2005, with an impressive win, starting on the first stage when their Pirelli-shod M-Sport Ford Fiesta Rally2 opened up an early advantage they would never lose. The Cumbrian crew finally won by a comfortable 20 seconds from the Volkswagen Polo GTi crew of Osian Pryce and Noel O`Sullivan with Rhys Yates coping with pop-off valve issues in his Michelin-backed Fiesta Rally2 to finish 18 seconds shy of Pryce, rounding out the podium with James Morgan co-driving.
The Banchory based rally offered some of the finest stages in Scotland with this year's edition marking the first time the WRC has headed to the area in almost 30 years. A thrilling mix of high-speed and flowing gravel tests in the Durris, Fetteresso and Drumtochty forests were an unknown quantity for the majority of BRC contenders and served as an interesting leveler for the stellar BRC entry.
Wilson took his early initiative over the opening 6-mile Durris test with a three second lead over Pryce with Melvyn Evans Motorsport teammates and championship leaders Matt Edwards and Darren Garrod in third. Edwards was fresh from a round-two victory and eager to maintain his hold over the series lead but was forced to settle for third after the opening loop of the day.
The third test saw Edwards respond to Wilson's stronghold, instantly clawing back five seconds to vault Pryce into second. Edwards was then joint fastest on stage four with Wilson, achieved with a small misfire in the Polo which sadly re-appeared in the penultimate stage, forcing Edwards to park up with his first non-score of the season. With Edwards indisposed and Pryce over 20 seconds adrift, Wilson was able to manage his gap to secure an impressive BRC win, after taking the 2005 Trackrod Rally Yorkshire spoils at just 18 years old. The win means that Matt now moves to 5th in the championship standings, 14 points behind leader Yates, who has played his extra points joker.
Round 4 of the 2021 Championship will be the Trackrod Rally at the end of September, 45 stage miles on the fast-flowing Yorkshire Forests including Dalby and Langdale, with 12 miles in the darkness of Dalby as the rally overture on Friday evening - some warmup but all to play for in what looks like an open contest.
British Rally Championship for Drivers after 3 of 7 rounds
1. Rhys Yates 49J
2. Osian Pryce 48
3. Matt Edwards 37
4. Sam Moffett 37
5. Matthew Wilson 35
6. Josh Moffett 24
7. Tom Cave 18
8. Keith Cronin 16
9. Desi Henry 10
10. Seb Perez 10J
* J denotes Joker card played
17th August, 2021