With 52 points separating the first and second placed contenders for this year’s Dulux Trade MSA British Teams Rally Championship, round five, the Antrim-based Todds Leap Ulster Rally NI is going to mark a significant point in the season and to see if Autosport Technology can be toppled from its perch.
The points table shows the current leaders on 107 points, ahead of M-Sport Ford with 55. However, the gap between the them and the two teams that follow is only six points, with Team C2R2 Max on 50 and 586 sports on 49.
Anyone who has watched the two Renault Twingos of Autosport Technology in action this year will have seen why they have established such an impressive margin, with Estonians Siim Plangi and co-driver Marek Sarapuu and their Finnish team mates Mikko Pajunen and Jani Salo delivering some spectacular performances.
So far in the M-Sport camp the points-scorers have alternated, due to driver commitments in other events. The Ulster Rally weekend sees Craig Breen and Alastair Fisher taking part in a round of the WRC Academy in Germany and therefore, it will be down to Finnish driver Jussi Kumpumäki and Welshman Osian Price to uphold the Ford team’s honours in their Fiestas.
Team C2R2 Max will feature the Citroens of Joseph McGonigle and Desi Henry and, with both drivers hailing from Northern Ireland, their local knowledge and the support from the home crowd could well be the catalyst that launches their team into a fighting position for the title.
For fourth-placed 586 sports, the battle to become Teams’ Champions was always going to be a hard fought affair, as with just one car and crew: Callum Black and co-driver Paul Wakely in their Suzuki Swift, potentially they are at a 50% disadvantage to the teams with two entries. However, to be just a handful of points away from second place after four rounds is an indication of what the team could achieve if it had a pair of cars.
In advance of the announcement by BRC organisers earlier this season that next year the British Championship will be exclusively for Formula 2 (R1, R2 and R3 two-wheel-drive) cars, the Championship for Teams has already adopted this category of competition for 2011. And, with four teams registered to score points this year, the future blueprint is now in place and it is anticipated that many more team entries will emerge in 2012.
The Toddsleap Rally NI starts from the Barbican Gate in Antrim town centre at 13.35 on Friday afternoon and, after the initial leg of six stages, at 22.50 returns to the service park at Junction One International Outlet Shopping Centre for the overnight halt. Saturday’s leg two gets underway at 06.40 and sees a further eight stages before crews cross the finish line at 17.50, with the event’s total of 14 stages providing a competitive distance of 127 miles.
For more information on the Dulux Trade MSA British Rally Championship visit www.rallybrc.co.uk.