FX Motor Sport's junior driver Nick Rowland had a successful BRC debut last weekend taking second overall in the inaugural Suzuki Swift Sport Cup category, despite retiring from Friday night's stages due to an overheating engine.
The 19-year-old still managed a third fastest time through the opening test however, even though he had to back off to preserve the engine.
His efforts though were in vain and Rowland would have to resort to SupeRally rules to complete the opening leg, leaving the MSA British Rally Academy member with 30 minutes of penalties and little hope of a strong finish.
On the second day of the event Rowland drove with his head, making sure he looked after his car through the rough stages while expecting the other Suzuki competitors to have problems.
Setting a brace of top end times through the day, Rowland maturely balanced speed with tactics and found himself slowly climbing back up the leaderboard, eventually taking second place behind Gordon Nichol.
"I can't believe we have secured second place after 30 minutes of penalties, reflected the
Crash.net columnist. "I was totally gutted after the problems I had on Friday, after spending so much time preparing for the rally it was heartbreaking.
"However it was clear that as soon we got back to the FX service area no one was giving up. The guys were fantastic and got the Suzuki up and running again for the next day.
"From then on we kept our heads down and push where we felt we could, but also made sure we had a clean run. It was clear that running down the order the stages were not holding up well and it was critical to drive to the conditions. I think we judged it quite well as we never had any mechanical problems on Saturday apart from a bent steering arm which the FX guys sorted out perfectly.
"After the other Suzuki's retired in the afternoon I saw no reason to push at all so we just drove very steady to secure the points.
