by Geoff Mayes
Stuart Jones has declared his recent foray into the Czech Republic, where he contested the Rally Bohemia at the wheel of his Lico Wheels MG Super 2000 Sport, a success.
Jones and co-driver Andy Bull were invited over to contest the rally, based in Mlada Boleslav, 40 miles north east of Prague, by the organisers and with the two-day tarmac based event proving the ideal opportunity to test ahead of the third round of the 2008 Tesco 99 Octane MSA British Rally Championship, the team jumped at the chance.
Following the recce earlier in the week 23 year old Jones was aware that the base settings on the MG would need adjusting to suit the characteristics of the stages and opted for a cautious start as he dialled the car into the conditions.
Facing stiff competition from some of Europe's top drivers Jones and Bull were pleased with their progress throughout the opening leg, despite the high speed nature of the roads not really suiting the normally aspirated MG.
Day two dawned with plenty of promise for the MSD run car. A string of top five fastest stage times showed the true potential of the nimble little MG but when the power steering failed at the start of a loop of stages, Jones took the sensible decision of retiring the car rather than risk damaging any components ahead of the Rally Isle of Man.
"Rally Bohemia has been a wonderful experience. Everyone has been so helpful and friendly and the roads are fantastic," said the Welsh star. "Friday's stages didn't really suit the car as they were primarily high speed tests but once we'd dialled in the settings we were very happy with the times.
"The power steering was a minor issue and we could have carried on, but with the Isle of Man only two weeks away we didn't want to risk anything.
"We achieved what we came here to do, and that was to test the car against some of the best cars and drivers in Europe, and we are happy with the results."
