Ryan Champion's hopes of repeating his Trackrod Rally Yorkshire victory from 2006 evaporated when a puncture half way through the long Langdale stage cost him over four minutes and scuppered any chance the Castleton driver had of success.
Returning to the sport after an enforced six month sabbatical, Champion was hoping to drive the latest Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9 on his home event but when the proposed deal fell through, he resorted to using the Morgan Motorsport Subaru Impreza on the Pickering-based Rally.
Despite not having not driven the car competitively, Champion and co-driver Craig Thorley were soon in the groove on the opening two stages in Dalby to emerge in fourth place and they held station through the Gale Rigg and Cropton tests to arrive at Service just 23 seconds down on Mark Higgins in third.
A quick blast around the Showground spectator stage saw them then head off to Langdale which is where disaster struck for the Procter's Coaches backed pairing, when eight miles into the stage, a front puncture caused them to stop and change the offending wheel, dropping four minutes in the process and relegating them to 14th overall.
Bitterly disappointed, Champion fought back in typical fashion with a string of top five times through the remaining stages but in the end, had to settle for a tenth place finish.
“Having not driven competitively for six months, I was a little rusty to start off with and although the car didn't have the speed to match the Mitsubishis, I was confident of securing a podium. But the puncture put paid to that and it was effectively game over,” said the local ace.
“I'm very disappointed because a lot of people have helped to get us to the start. I'd especially like to thank Kevin Procter, Phil Morgan and
www.extreme-rally.co.uk for making it possible and I'm sorry I couldn't repay them with a good result.”
