Sixteen year old Matthew Thompson took his first victory in the Kick Energy Pirelli Junior 1000 Rally Championship on Saturday’s Roskirk Stages Rally in a nail biting battle at the head of the leaderboard.
The event, held at the Three Sisters Race Circuit in Wigan marked the beginning of the third year of Rallying in the UK for drivers aged between 14 and 16 years. The now traditional season opener dawned wet and gloomy, adding to the challenge for eleven of Britain’s youngest Rally drivers. Twelve stages and 26 stage miles greeted the crews and it was defending Junior 1000 Rally Champion, Cameron Davies who led the field away into the 2011 season, immediately taking the lead of the event.
The event was also the first time the Championship used the new Pirelli tyres in competition. In a deal secured during the off-season by the Championship organisers, the Pirelli brand replaced Falken tyres as the Championship’s tyre supplier, in a deal that covers the myriad of Championships under the Formula 1000 Rally Club banner.
As the stages began to dry out, Cameron and co-driver Chris Williams continued to extend their lead at the head of the leaderboard. That was until stage 8 when an uncharacteristic error by the crew saw them complete an extra lap of the stage, losing them almost a minute, dropping them into sixth overall. An inspired fight back saw them move into fourth on the final stage, after moving ahead of Ben Friend on tie break having won the first stage of the event.
The demise of Cameron from the top of the leaderboard meant that the thrilling battle between Matthew Thompson, Aaron McClure and Arron Newby for second, became the battle for victory. With no more than three seconds separating the three throughout the event, the Micra trio entered the final stage equal to the second on time, in what was to prove a nail biting finale to the opening event of the 2011 season.
A new season sees new faces joining the ever growing Championship and the Roskirk was no exception. Calvin Beattie, Ryan Burns and Matthew Faulkner all made their debut at the Wigan venue in a trio of Nissan Micra’s. It is Calvin that gains the award for the furthest travelled to a Junior 1000 event, making the trek from Northern Ireland especially to compete in the Championship. Indeed, it was the young Northern Irishman who came out on top of the newcomers, finishing a fine seventh overall, taking the place on tie break from fellow newcomer Ryan Burns thanks to finishing the first stage one second ahead. Matthew Faulkner rounded off the top 10 after swapping times with Robert Kennedy throughout the event.
Stage twelve, the final stage of the 2011 Roskirk Stages will go down in Junior 1000 history as the most nail biting – with three crews tied for first position going into the final test. It was Aaron McClure who led the eleven crews into the final stage, setting a time of 2:12 – a second faster than his previous attempt and setting the benchmark for his rivals behind. Remarkably, Matthew Thompson entered the finish control of the stage with an identical time, also a second faster than his previous attempt. The last of the trio to enter the stage, Arron Newby, had to set a time of 2:11 or better to win the event however, just a handful of corners from the finish, the youngster in the TEG Sport Micra left the road immediately retiring from the event – a huge disappointment for the sixteen year old, on only his third event. Despite the accident, Arron impressed with his increase in speed and optimism following the off, being tipped as ‘one to watch’ in 2011.
This left Aaron McClure and Matthew Thompson on equal time after twelve stages of hard fought competition, Matthew taking the victory on tie break by just one second – the closest victory in the history of the Kick Energy Pirelli Junior 1000 Rally Championship: “I’m over the moon with the result” commented an ecstatic Thompson at the finish, “it’s been an amazing battle today with Aaron and Arron – it’s sad that Arron had such bad luck on the last stage, but i’m sure we’ll be battling again soon. I have to thank my co-driver Graham for his work and also to my family for their support ever since we began in the Championship.”
Thompson now leads the Championship with a score of 31 points heading into the next round of the Championship, the Lee Holland Memorial Rally on the 27th of March. For further information on the Championship please visit www.formula1000.co.uk.