Gear Linkage Woes Halt Petch On New Car Debut
Wednesday, May 30th, 2007Former National Rally Champion Steve Petch enjoyed his outing on last weekends Jim Clark Rally, despite his event ending prematurely when gear linkage problems halted his Subaru Impreza WRC.
Steve, who is officially retired, had minimal testing in the ex Damian Cole Subaru Impreza WRC98, but despite that had a fun filled weekend in the car. With conditions varying between bone dry and treacherously wet the SG Petch team principal erred on the side of caution and yet still set some remarkably quick times, considering the age of the car.
“The Impreza was pretty different to my Hyundai. It doesn’t have active diffs so was more like a Mk II Escort at times, but great fun to drive. I really enjoyed the weekend, and a big thanks to all the marshals and organisers for braving the conditions.” said Steve.
The SG Petch Motorsport team were also running son Stephen, who was using his Mitsubishi Evo 9 as the Zero car. With the machine running faultlessly all weekend not only has Stephen got a good base setting for the Ulster Rally in August but he is feeling confident ahead of his next outing, this weekends Severn Valley Rally in Mid Wales.
Stephen currently lies fourth in the Mitsubishi Evo Challenge and will be looking for a strong run on the Builth Wells based event.