Alan Cookson and co-driver Julian Wilkinson collected more points in the Pirelli MSA Gravel Rally Championship as they finished a tough Severn Valley National Rally on Saturday.
Cookson and Wilkinson came home 18th overall and ninth in class B13 in their GillettsSpar.com, Robert Wiseman Dairies, VK Vodka Kick, Kumho Tyres and Riverside Property Services supported Subaru Impreza World Rally Car (WRC) on the Builth Wells-based gravel event after battling through a series of problems.
The event, round four of the national gravel series, started well for the crew and they were up to 16th overall after the opening two stages following a clean run. But the first disaster struck on stage three, the challenging Radnor test, when the gear linkage broke again and they were stuck in third gear for 10 miles, dropping around four and half minutes.
Despite fears that the same problem had occurred that had forced them to retire from the previous round, the RBS International Manx Rally in early May, thankfully though, it was a different part and the pair managed to limp through the stage and back to service to fix it but they slid down the leaderboard to 24th.
Their day did not get better from there as on leaving service full of fuel, the car bizarrely began to pump fuel out of the tank. They overcame the problem though to post competitive times through the final three stages – being 15th fastest through stage five – and haul themselves back up the standings to a credible 18th and to eight points in the Pirelli MSA Gravel Rally Championship.
"I'm just so relieved to have made it to the finish, it's certainly been a character building day for everyone involved," Cookson said. "The problems we had throughout the day were really frustrating but we overcame them thanks to some exceptional work carried out by the service crew in second service, and to get a result and some more points in the championship was the main target after the problems.
![Alan Cookson / Julian Wilkinson - Subaru Impreza WRC. Border Counties Rally 2008. [Pic credit: Songasport]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/426342.jpg)
