Frustrating season comes to an end for local rally team

A frustrating season came to an end for local rally outfit, the Select Cars Subaru Impreza Team in last week’s Premier Rally in Sherwood Pines.

The team’s mechanics, including the driver Gary Wayne worked very hard and had to put in long hours to replace virtually the whole power steering system on the after problems on the recent Malton Rally in North Yorkshire.

The now healthy car and all the parts were put through their paces thoroughly on a forest test session in mid-Wales where the cars set up was fine tuned, with new diff maps and the suspension settings prior to the Dukeries Motor Club event the SA GAS Premier Rally, held in Sherwood Pines last weekend.

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The rally held over six stages within the single forest is very popular and very well supported by competitors and spectators alike.

The Subaru Impreza team started steadily with the aim of staying ahead of Club Championship rivals Dave Welch and Stuart Proctor.

In fact the highest placed finisher would clinch the Dukeries MC Driver title at the end of the day. Gary and co-driver Andy Smith held seventh place overall after stage two, but the times were very close ahead of them.

After service, as confidence increased, so did the speed and they were taking time back off the cars ahead of them on stages three and four on which they recorded fourth fastest time.

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They were confident of making it in to the top four at the end of the 36 competitive miles.

Gary and co-driver Andy had a comfortable cushion of 21 seconds over their rivals going in to the last pair of short stages.

However, halfway through the stage the turbocharger failed and the crew had to limp to the end of the stage, losing 50 seconds to their rivals Welch and Proctor.

Back in service Select Cars mechanic Luke Tomlinson, assisted by the TEG Sport team, changed the failed turbo in less than 30 minutes.

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This great effort and quick work allowed the crew to go out on to the last stage to try to wrestle back the deficit of 29 seconds over four miles - a tough ask.

But a quick time from the repaired car’s crew and an error from their rivals could not be discounted.

The crew attacked hard and took 11 seconds out of their rival and set their best time of the day. But it wasn’t enough and they missed out by 18 seconds.

At the end of the challenging but enjoyable event the Select Cars team finished seventh overall, which was the same position as 2012.