Millers Oils ‘Rising Star’ and Swift Group supported Matt Edwards took a fine second overall on Sunday’s Mid Wales Stages Rally, piloting the Geoff Jones Motorsport Subaru Impreza on his first event of the 2011 season.
The Newtown based event saw a very strong entry tackle some of the best forest stages in the country, but the Smart-Trailers, Holton Homes, Millers Oils, SJR Motorsport and Vulcan Fasteners backed crew of Edwards and Collis were immediately on fine form; settling into their first event for five months, and first event in a four-wheel drive car for 10 months with apparant ease.
Supported by Rallytech.com, Racing-Lines.com, Mintex Racing and Dunlop Tyres, the pairing were able to set second fastest times on both the opening tests ahead of a number of more powerful World Rally Cars in their Group N Subaru, and found a good rythym despite the changeable conditions.
“We are out today to get back into it after the winter lay-off, and hopefully put some of the experience gained from visiting ice-drivesweden.com into practice ahead of our BRC Challenge Campaign which starts in a months time” explained Matt at the mid-day service halt;
“We managed to settle in very quickly which is great and Im feeling very confortable in the car and not taking any risks, afterall the car is out on hire on another rally next weekend so I am under strict order this weekend” confessed the 26yr old Llandudno resident, who carries out all pre and post event maintenence on his GJM car.
After a service at the Sweet Lamb complex, the second half of the rally took place in the very fast and flowing Myherin forest, where another 2 long stages would see the climax of the rally.
The duo continued to increase their pace as they acclimatised to the car, ironically the car Edwards built at the Geoff Jones Motorsport garage in 2010 following his victory on this very event. The resulting stage times showed a great improvement over the course of the day, pulling them even further clear of the closest challenger to their second position, and within 2 seconds on the final stage of of Tom Cave, who recently took Second overall on the first round of the British Rally Championship which enabled the M.E.Rallysport team to gauge the level of their pace.
Second position at the end of the event was a great reward for a well calculated and excecuted performance: “Today has really ticked all the boxes for us in terms of what we wanted to achieve. It was a great chance to thank all those who are supporting us in our 2011 BRC Challenge championship with a one-off drive on an event that offered good media coverage and a town-centre start. It was also good to get out on some fantastic stages and get back in the groove ahead of our first championship round on April 2nd, as unfortunately we dont have the budget to carry out any major practice or testing before that. All in all we have gained a lot from the day and really enjoyed the event.”
Edwards and Collis return to action in their recently acquired Ex Callum Black MG ZR in just 3 weeks time at the Bulldog Rally in Welshpool.
– Credit: RallySportMedia – www.rallysportmedia.com