by Geoff Mayes
Simon Harraway shrugged off a recent injury to trade times with some of the best rally drivers in the country on last weekends Pirelli International Rally.
Harraway, who had been ruled out of competition for the past six weeks after damaging the ligaments in his right knee whilst training in early March, and was just looking for a steady run on his first trip to the infamous Kielder forest complex.
With this event, the opening round of the 2008 Tesco 99 octane MSA British Rally Championship, allowing competitors the opportunity to write their own pace notes Simon and co-driver Craig Drew were hopeful of a strong run in their Regency Group backed Mitsubishi Evo 9.
After a constructive recce the pair were in good spirits but when they headed off into Carlisle for the ceremonial start disaster struck. The fuel pump failed as they left the start ramp and their rally was over before it had even begun.
Anxious to gain time in the car, and to check that their notes were accurate, the pair returned under super rally rules. These basically allow a competitor to accept a time penalty for each stage they miss and rejoin the action the next day. Thus the pair headed out to the first stage on Saturday, having missed all of Friday nights action, and with a one hour ten minute penalty hanging over them, effectively ruling them out of any points scoring positions.
The first stage was hampered by the intercom failing so Harraway had to drive purely by sight. After repairing the fault and some fine tuning of the set up in service, as well as more faith in his notes saw Harraway begin to push, and with each stage that passed his times improved in leaps and bounds.
The final stage, the nine mile long Pundershaw two, saw the former karting champion go seventh fastest overall, just seconds slower than reigning champion Guy Wilks and current Production car World Rally Championship Leader Juha Hanninen.
