John Pritchard and Alex Laffey shared the spoils on the final two rounds of the 2010 Kick Energy Fiesta SportChallenge Championship, the Toddsleap.com Ulster Challenge Rally. It was 18-year-old Jamie Brown from Foulsham who was the star of the show however, scoring his maiden stage win and setting four fastest stage times over the two events.
The first award of the weekend went to Jamie Brown and his service crew, winning the Muc-Off Motorsport Cleaning Best Presented Car Award.
The opening challenge event took place over five of the six stages used on day one of Rally Northern Ireland and included two runs over the notorious Torrs Head stage. Championship regular Richard Parry-Jones from Abermaw and co-driver Sara Price took the opening stage win, twelve seconds ahead of 20-year-old Alex Laffey from Market Harborough and his co-driver Peter Martin. Less than one second behind Laffey was John Pritchard and Chris Williams; Williams was hoping for a strong final event of the season to boost his chances of claiming the co-driver’s championship title. A win on the second stage, just over a second ahead of Parry-Jones moved Pritchard into second overall, with Laffey dropping to third after losing over 25 seconds on the first run through Torrs Head, having never competed on Irish Tarmac stages before.
Stage 4, Knockboy, once again saw Pritchard take the win, clearly much happier with the set up of his Fiesta ST than on his previous Tarmac outing. Early leader Parry-Jones suffered disaster on Stage 5, rolling out of the event and causing considerable damage to his Fiesta ST. Brown and co-driver Craig Burgess also gave an indication of what was to come, posting a time just five seconds behind Pritchard, despite being held up by Parry-Jones’ accident. With darkness setting in, Brown broke his FSC duck with a commanding 18-second victory over SS5, Glendun, moving him to second overall. Laffey once again set the second fastest stage time, just five seconds ahead of Pritchard. Brown quickly set about closing the gap to Pritchard, taking another 21 seconds from him on the final stage. It wasn’t enough however; Pritchard won his first FSC event by just 0.3 seconds from Brown, the closest result of the season by far.
The second Ulster Challenge event of the weekend took place over the same four stages used on day two of Rally Northern Ireland, but with competitors only having the chance to tackle them once. Clearly brimming with confidence after their performance the previous evening, Brown and Burgess picked up where they left off, scoring not only the fastest FSC stage time, but winning the stage outright. Four seconds behind Brown, Laffey and co-driver Peter Martin were keen to push Brown all the way on the final FSC event of the year and claim third in the championship standings. After his win on the opening day, Pritchard knew all he and co-driver Chris Williams had to do was finish the event to secure second in the championship and for Williams to win the co-driver’s championship.
Brown took his fourth stage win on SS2, Langford Lodge, with Pritchard this time second, just seven tenths of a second behind the young Englishman. Laffey was still in contention, posting the third fastest time, just six seconds behind Brown. After a short 20-minute service, the competitors headed out for the final two stages of the event, Cairncastle and Slemish. After a promising run of stage wins, Brown’s challenge came unstuck on SS3, a broken driveshaft costing him over 14 seconds and, with one stage still to run, any chance of claiming his debut victory. Brown’s misfortune promoted Pritchard into the lead, just 0.2 seconds ahead of Laffey as they started the final stage of the event.
Laffey pushed hard through the final stage, finishing five seconds ahead of rival Pritchard, enough to claim his maiden victory on the final event of the year and promote him to third in the championship standings. Pritchard brought the car home in second, enough for co-driver Williams to claim the co-driver’s championship win in his first full season in the FSC. Brown managed to limp through the final stage with one-wheel-drive and claim his second podium finish of the weekend.
Although the 2010 Kick Energy FSC championship is now finished, the competitors can still look forward to the final round of the BRC Challenge (BRCC), the Trackrod Challenge Rally, 25 September 2010, for which they are also eligible.
Toddsleap.com Ulster Challenge Rally 2 Winner Alex Laffey said:
“I’m pleased to win my first FSC event on the final round of the 2010 championship. We had a good fight with John and Jamie today and it’s shame Jamie suffered the broken driveshaft when he did. The win gives us great momentum going into 2011 where we will hopefully be in the championship hunt from the start.”
– Credit: M-Sport.