Fiesta SportingTrophy UK new boy Steven Brown took the spoils on the Malcolm Wilson Rally last weekend, the opening round in the championship.
17 competitors took to the start ramp of the Cumbria-based event and all of them made it through the opening stage. It was Alastair Fisher though that emerged with a slender one second lead from Steven Brown, with local driver Kris Hall in third.
The crews then moved onto the 5.63 miles of Comb and it was here that the event claimed its first scalp, when Clive Hilton suffered a suspected diff failure after hitting a large hole.
Also in trouble was Phillip Liddle, who beached his car at the side of the road and lost four minutes. Fisher meanwhile extended his lead to six seconds from Hall and 19-year-old Elfyn Evans.
Elfyn lost time in the next test however and a broken driveshaft saw him drop over 2 minutes and plummet from second overall to 12th. That left Hall trailing Fisher by 10 seconds with Francis Regan one second further back.
Following SS3 crews headed off to Greystoke, the final test before service and when Fisher suffered from a broken rear stub axle, Hall seized the lead with Regan and James Everard close behind. Elfyn's team-mate, Meilyr Evans rounded out the top four.
After the Penrith halt crews headed for the longest stage of the rally and once again there was a change in the leaderboard. Hall had a gearbox problem and retired and with Everard beating Regan by 10 seconds, he took the lead, with eventual winner, Brown in third.
Grizedale South was next and while Elfyn took the stage win, a great time from Brown saw him finish second and move up to joint first overall with Regan. Everard remained a close third only five seconds off the lead. Electrical problems caused by a puncture damaging a wire lost Meilyr Evans time dropping him down to sixth, leaving Max Utting fourth and Irisman Kyle Orr fifth.
![Steven Brown won the R1 of the FST UK series. Malcolm Wilson Rally 2008. [PIC CREDIT: FST UK]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/413180.jpg)
