by Geoff Mayes
Britain's Stuart Jones has declared himself pleased with his performance on the inaugural Rally Ireland, the penultimate round in the FIA Production Car World Rally Championship, despite gearbox gremlins costing him time and robbing him of a certain top-five finish.
The Welshman, who teamed up with new co-driver Andy Bull for this event, was contesting his second ever Irish rally, just over a year on from a strong run on the Ulster Rally. As a result Jones had an idea of how difficult the conditions were likely to be and planned his strategy accordingly.
Choosing not to chase the front runners and instead focus on keeping his SJR Motorsport-run Mitsubishi Evo 9 on the 'black stuff', he was still consistently well inside the top ten in the stage times.
By the end of the opening leg the youngster was lying comfortably in sixth position despite having been hampered by a loss of power steering for two stages.
With conditions worsening on Saturday, Jones was in his element, revelling in the atrocious weather and was all set to improve on his position when a freak gearbox problem forced him out.
Returning under the SupeRally format on the final day in order to gain more experience of the nature of the roads, he was eventually classified in tenth place in the PWRC.
"Our strategy was always to go at a comfortable pace, knowing that the conditions would catch out the unwary," he explained. "This proved true and had it not been for two freak mechanical faults, the curse of any privateer team on a tight budget, we could have finished well inside the top five in class.
"Andy and I got on well in the car though and we are both now really looking forward to my home event, Wales Rally GB. This will be my first ever event in the exciting new MSD-run MG Super 2000 Sport."
Bull meanwhile, a veteran of over 25 world rallies, was also happy with how they gelled: "Rally Ireland was amazingly difficult, with unique roads and tricky weather conditions, but Stuart did a great job. This was our first time writing pace notes together and although there is still more to come we are both happy with how the weekend went," he added.
