For
Carryduff's Jonny Greer, after two rounds of the Dulux Trade MSA
British Rally Championship (BRC) he's in a dream position, as
the leader of Britain's premier rally series. "I wasn't really
expecting to be in this position, but it's a nice position to
be in for sure" quipped the young engineer, who works in
the family David Greer Motorsport business, preparing top class
rally machines.
After a fifth place on round one, the Bulldog Rally, Jonny and
Welsh co-driver Dai Roberts eventual superb second overall finish
on the weekend's Pirelli International Rally, gives them a promising
six point advantage in the BRC. Coupled to this the result also
clinched Jonny his second victory on the Mitsubishi Ralliart
Evolution Challenge, and he also leads this one make series.
Like many on the tough Kielder forest stages of the Pirelli
International he battled through a few problems, but the DGM
run Lancer Evo 9 survived the rigours of the two day International
to record a second place overall finish behind British rally
legend Gwyndaf Evans.
"The
first night was tricky. There was a lot of dust hanging, and
we were about tenth on the road, so it was thick in places.
Actually the first night wasn't so easy, we had a worrying noise
in the back of the car on the second stage, which turned out
thankfully to be just a jammed stone, but on the third test
we dropped 10-15 seconds with a broken gearbox. The team did
a great job and changed the box in less than the 40 minutes
allowed at the night-time service, so we were ready to go on
Saturday."
At the end of the first night Jonny and Dai lay 7th overall,
just ahead of former British Champion Mark Higgins, and behind
Evo Challenge rival, Norwegian Daniel Sigguarson, Alastair Fisher
and fourth placed Dave Weston Jnr who was 40 seconds in front.
"It was a case of starting all over again on Saturday,
and our aim was to have a go at catching up with Dave Weston.
We had some good times, and had the gap down to 17 seconds going
into the last loop, before Dave went off the road on the first
stage of the last loop. The car was going well. We had done
a wee test before hand and played with the centre diff and we
have been working on our suspension, so we were happy with the
car."
By
stage 10 with just two more to go the Carryduff Forklift Lancer
lay fourth overall, just over 2 minutes behind rally leader
Keith Cronin, but the last stage was to provide a couple of
dramas.
"Really
we were in no man's land at that stage. The three guys ahead
of us were still battling a bit to see who could win the rally,
but I was just glad we weren't heading into that last stage
having to race to the end, as it was by far the roughest stage
of the rally, and an easy one to get punctures on. We got a
bit of a shock however to see rally leader Keith Cronin parked
off the road, and realised we had moved up to third, then when
we got to the end of the stage, we took a second glance at the
timing board. Craig Breen had dropped a lot of time with a puncture
and we realised that we had taken second place! It was quite
unexpected and unexpected that we are actually leading the BRC
at this stage!" A fast clean and tidy drive had ensured
that Jonny kept free of punctures and he scored his highest
BRC finish in second place, a great result for the hard working
DGM team.
The
next round of the BRC is the tarmac Jim Clark Rally, but at
the moment Jonny is busy in the work shop preparing his BOTT
Equipment backed Lancer Evo 9 for this weekend's Killarney Rally
of the Lakes. "We are now changing everything into tarmac
specification before Killarney, and it will help as a test before
the Jim Clark. I'm looking forward to doing the event, especially
driving stages like Molls Gap, and we are also registered for
the Irish Tarmac Championship." Preparation of rally cars
also has to be a useful skill for any rally championship leader
to have. "I enjoy working on the cars, and for sure it
gives you a better knowledge of how the car works, and if something's
wrong it helps to pin-point where the problem is."
With
Keith Cronin's superb victory on the BRC in 2009, it's fitting
that another Irish driver is now leading this high profile rally
series, and the amiable Carryduff driver aims to try his utmost
to hold onto that coveted position.
For
more information on the DGM Sport team click onto www.dgmsport.com
Issued by Andrew Bushe Promotions www.andrewbushe.com
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