Radstock’s Ross Whittock, again alongside Jamie Anderson in the CA1 Ford Fiesta R5, managed to finish the third round of the British Rally Championship in seventh position after a catalogue of problems throughout the two-day Forest Stages Rally, based around the area of Dumfries and Galloway.
Once again, Welshman, Tom Cave, set the pace in the Hyundai R5 from the up-coming Swedish star, Fredrick Ahlin in the R5 Skoda. Ross and Jamie lost over a minute on the opening stage when the power steering failed just after the start. Without any type of assistance until after the second stage, time was continuing to haemorrhage and then a puncture added fuel to the fire. At the overnight on Friday in Lockerbie, Cave showed the pace from Ahlin, with Ross and Jamie now down to 21st after the problems.
Saturday was a new day, but with heavy rain across the Highlands. Cave broke his suspension and retired, Ahlin moved into first place for a short while, before local Dumfries man, David Bogie, took the lead to the finish.
Ross and Jamie, still struggling, this time with a miss-fire, managed to put themselves up as far as fifteenth by midway through the last day. Luck was beginning to turn, and over the last few stages, they managed to put in respectable times to claw their way up the leaderboard to seventh place before the finish in Moffat, and bag themselves a further six points in the Championship. A tough weekend with a sweet ending.