The International Rally Drivers Club has announced a continuation of its Performance Award initiative in conjunction with the 2008 Tesco 99 Octane MSA British Rally Championship.
The scheme, which was won by Steve Graham in 2007, is designed to recognise and reward championship contenders who show the greatest improvement in performance between rounds.
“The performance is determined by a tried and tested algorithm that takes the stage times of each competitor and determines their improvement on performance on subsequent rounds,” explained a statement to the media.
“Consequently, the performance on the Pirelli International Rally was used as the benchmark for the performances on the
Jim Clark International Rally.”
Martin Roberts, who is in his second year contesting the Citroën C2R2 Cup and who leads the series going to the Manx event next month, netted the first IRDC Performance Award of the season - and the £200 that goes with it.
The Staffordshire driver has proved his consistently good pace by finishing on the podium on the opening two rounds, but will have to continue to push hard, as just four points separate the top four Citroëns.
The IRDC competitor performance database has been providing performance data for rallies since the 1980's.
This year the system will continue to be used to measure the performance improvement for each registered crew following each round of the championship. The crew that shows the greatest improvement in their performance will be awarded up to £200 at each round.
