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At this weekends Park Systems Rally with only 2 rounds left to go, the battle for supremacy in the Mitsubishi Evo Cup will step up another gear with SG Petch Motorsport driver Stephen Petch Junior, eager to put aside his recent accident on the Isle of Man and put in a strong performance on the Scottish borders event.
Currently lying 2nd in the standings, a mere 10 points off the lead, Stephen will be anxious to duplicate his sterling performance on July���s Swansea Bay Rally, where he dominated the Mitsubishi Evo Cup in difficult conditions and is relishing the chance to get back behind the wheel.
“Its��� been quite a while since I last drove in anger and I���m really looking forward to this weekend. We will have a slight disadvantage as my car is not ready yet and we are having to use another car, so I will need to adjust to that at the same time as regaining the ���feeling��� on gravel” commented Stephen.
Both he and Michael (Wilkinson, his co-driver) will be eager to put their recent experiences on the Isle of Man behind them and instead focus on the challenge ahead.
Barely a week after their blistering performance on the Swansea Bay Rally the pair experienced a painful run on the Rally Isle of Man. Having been delayed early on due to accidents ahead of him, Stephen and co-driver Michael Wilkinson would suffer one of the biggest crashes of their career, when his SG Petch Scalextric Team Mitsubishi Evo IX was caught out in the tricky conditions on one of the most challenging rounds of the Tesco 99 Octane MSA British Rally Championship.
The County Durham driver lost control on an extremely slippery section, and after mounting an embankment the car came to a very sudden halt against a rock wall. Although the Mitsubishi was pretty badly damaged, the pair escaped unscathed but would be in a lot of pain for a couple of weeks after the accident.
With the car not yet ready, the team have had no alternative but to use another Mitsubishi for the event, presenting Stephen with yet another challenge as he will need to adjust to the new car and regain his confidence on the events tricky and often rough surfaces.
“The Park Systems is not too far from my home, compared to the events in Wales, and I���m hoping to regain my confidence pretty quickly on this event. We had a troubled run here last year, loosing time with a lot of punctures, but I���m hoping we can reverse that this weekend” said Stephen.
The 2006 Park Systems Rally, round 7 of the ANCRO Gravel Rally Championship, begins at 9am from Riverside, Newton Stuart, with the first car expected back at the finish at around 4:30pm.
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