Renato Travaglia, former European Champion in 2002 and 2005 has announced his participation in IRC new championship. Travaglia will use Top Run Racing services to run his Mitsubishi Evo IX Gp.N. his campaign will start in next Turkey Rally, second rally of IRC calendar.
Darlington’s Guy Wilks made a successful debut for Mitsubishi, leading the Pirelli International Rally at the end of the first leg and heading a Mitsubishi 1-2-3 , 28 seconds up on Gwyndaf Evans with last years winner, Ryan Champion lying third, it might have been even better for Mitsubishi but Irishman Philip Morrow stopped on stage 3 while in third spot.
Mark Higgins problems continued on stage 2 with a puncture, Conrad Rautenbachs Citroen C2 sounded extremely rough while Wyn Humphreys reported problems with his Subaru’s brakes. Darren Gass survived a spin but lost a minute restarting and Stefan Davis ( Ford Puma ) struggled with low oil pressure.
While Wilks continued to dominate on Stages 3 and 4, despite a brief stall, Mark Higgins staged a bit of a comeback up the field and Gwyndaf Evans consolidated his second place. Morrows strong run ended when he stopped on stage 3 and Rautenbach’s problems were believed to be with the ECU , it was planned to remap it for tomorrow. Darran Gass picked up his second puncture on successive stages , James Wozencroft suffered two spins in the Suzuki, Hugh Evans Subaru had a slipping clutch while Rob Gill had a turbo pipe come adrift on his Subaru, he described the loss of power as “Like driving a 1 litre car”
Tomorrow is a long day for the International runners with another 10 stages to face, this includes two visits to the dreaded “Killer” Kielder complex before the city centre finish back in Carlisle with the first crew due at 7:10pm.