The Woodpecker rally saw seven crews making their way to Ludlow for the sixth round of the MRF ST Trophy
Six m-sport cars and one RF class car started from the race course and with 7 good quality stages ahead it was going to be a great battle.
Zak Hughes took the lead with a stage 1 time of 6.41, Kalvin Green was 11 seconds behind him with Ewan Tindall matching Green's time. James Giddings was a further 2 seconds behind them and Mat Tordoff a further 2 seconds behind James. In 6th place and getting to grips with her new steed was newcomer Emily Retallick. Emily, a former Rally First front runner, was making her rallying return after an 18 month lay off and was expected to go well. Wesley was in 7th place in the RF spec car.
Zak topped the time sheets again on Stage 2 leaving the rest of the crews needing to dig deep if they wanted to catch him.
Stage 3 saw Zak take a stunning stage time 22 seconds faster than his rivals, Zak now had a lead of 40 seconds going into service and only 16 seconds covered the next three cars.
The famous Haye Park was the 4th Stage and again Hughes lead the ST's with a fastest time,Giddings was close on his heals with a quick time & Tindall was finding his rhythm too.
Sadly Kalvin Green ground to a halt on this stage with a mechanical issue. Emily was now starting to increase her pace as she was getting used to the new car and her confidence grew with each mile. Wesley was now 6th, his main competition coming from the other BTRDA rally first runners.
The crews now headed back to service at the Ludlow Race Course, all crews seemed happy and had no issues to report. The new improved MRF tyre was holding up well with all the crews happy with their performance.
The crews set out for the final 3 stages. Ewan took his first stage win of the day in Stage 5 just 1 second ahead of Zak & James who tied on times. Mat had a good run and was only a further 3 seconds down.
Zak again topped the ST's times in Stage 6. Ewan had kept us his pace and moved into 2nd ahead of James in third place making for an interesting final stage.
The battle between Ewan and James over the next 5.5 miles of Stage 7 was going to be interesting, Giddings set fastest ST time ahead of Zak. Ewan finally losing out to James by the slimmest of margins, 1 second in fact, thanks in part Tindall being held up by another competitor mid-stage. Mat Tordoff snapped a shaft in the final stage but managed to limp out of the stage to continue.
So the top three leaving the final stage was Hughes, Giddings and Tindall.
Disaster then struck for Zak on the road section back to the finish with his car cutting out and failing top re-start. Sadly the crew, despite working frantically to find the fault, ran out of their allotted time and retired from the event. Rallying can be a cruel sport at times! A simple earth wire was located as the issue by the team back in the workshop.
Zak's retirement promoted everyone up a place so Giddings & Cunniff took top honours with Tindall & Hudson only 1 second behind in 2nd place. Retallick took a well deserved 3rd place on her debut in the series, improving as the day had gone on.
Zak's retirement promoted everyone up a place so Giddings & Cunniff took top honours with Tindall & Hudson only 1 second behind in 2nd place. Retallick took a well deserved 3rd place on her debut in the series, improving as the day had gone on.
So the final results are:
1st James Giddings and Sion Cunniff
2nd Ewan Tindall and Paul Hudson
3rd Emily and Eliot Retallick
4th Mat and Tim Tordoff
5th Wesley Gilford and Mark Townson
The final round is the Trackrod Rally in the fast Yorkshire forests and the championship is still all to play for so it will be an exciting showdown for sure.
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