Shelley Rogerson completed her 2007 rally season this past weekend when she contested the Coppermines Grizedale Stages rally with David Wright.
The rally, which took place over 41 miles of forest tracks, started from Coniston with the crews heading to the north of Grizedale forest for the opening stage of the event. Wright and Rogerson, who were doing the event in a GPM-prepared Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9, completed the stage in third place overall and first in class, 25 seconds ahead of their nearest class competitor.
Heavy rain made stage two, in the south of Grizedale forest, very slippery but the Evo crew had no problems, maintaining their third place and extending their class lead to 42 seconds.
The rain had turned to snow as the crews tackled the shorter stages three and four, the forest tracks becoming treacherous in places but Wright and Rogerson kept the Evo on the road to return to service still in third place overall and first in class.
Stage five was a repeat of stage one although snow and a cut-up road surface meant that the times were much slower second time around. Wright and Rogerson had a trouble free run through the stage but the times showed the crew who had been second in class were almost a minute faster so Wright and Rogerson headed into the last stage in fourth overall and second in class.
Despite posting a quicker time than the world rally car of event winner David Bogie on the last stage Wright and Rogerson were passed on the overall leaderboard by Steve Petch in his Hyundai Accent WRC, ending the event in fifth place and second in class.
“I'm pleased we got a finish but it's disappointing that we didn't make it into the top three,” she said. “We had a trouble free run with no car problems at all so we're a bit baffled how we lost nearly a minute to our nearest class rival in stage 5! However, it's been a great year for me, I've finished all the events I've done and I've been in the top 5 on every event which I'm delighted with.
“I'd like to thank Co-ordSport, Legend Fires, Nicky Grist Motorsports and Songasport for their support this year and I hope 2008 will be as successful and enjoyable as 2007 has been.”
