2024 marks the 50th running of Midland Manor Motor Club’s Rallynuts Severn Valley Stages and, to help celebrate this milestone, the second round of the Protyre BTRDA Rally Series has attracted a capacity entry.
Victory on the season-opening Malcolm Wilson Rally sees Elliot Payne and Patrick Walsh (Fiesta Rally2) arriving in mid-Wales as leaders of the Fuchs Lubricants BTRDA Gold Star® Rally Championship, but they’ll be perfectly well aware that, as yet, nothing can be taken for granted.
Elliot also won’t need reminding that his runner-up spot on last year’s event came just one second ahead of 3rd-placed Matthew Hirst / Declan Dear (Fiesta R5) who are back for more as well.
However, having only managed a 10th place finish on the Malcolm Wilson, Hirst / Dear find themselves behind Class B13 leaders Russ Thompson / Steve Link (Lancer EVO9), runner-up last time out Vivian Hamill (VW Polo R5) and the Fiesta R5s of Scott Beattie / Peredur Davies and Daniel Sigurdarson in the points table.
All of the above feature in the Severn Valley entry list, as do Liam Clark / Emily Easton-Page (Fiesta Rally2) who finished a matter of seconds behind Hirst/Dear last time out, while Perry Gardener and Jack Bowen (Fiesta R5) will be hoping for the opportunity to open their Gold Star account following a DNF in Cumbria.
From different perspectives, but with similar aims, newcomers to the BTRDA Series Gunnar Johannesson / Isak Gudjonsson (Fiesta R5) and vastly-experienced returnees Pat Naylor / Ian Lawrence (Lancer EVO9) will both relish the opportunity to improve their standings as the season reaches its one-quarter distance.
Andy Davison and Tom Murphy (Sunbeam VXR) came up trumps in the Protyre BTRDA Silver Star® Championship on the Malcolm Wilson and, as class winners on last year’s Rallynuts, will be justifiably full of confidence when it comes to moving that situation forward.
The Fuchs Lubricants BTRDA Bronze Star Championship table may well have a different look to it by the end of the Rallynuts! Current leader Callum Black is contesting another section of the event leaving his dad Steve Black, the 2021 Champion, to take over at the controls of the family Suzuki Swift.
The BTRDA Rally First Cup is currently a straight fight between the Peugeot 205 GTIs of Giles Armitage / Josh Rhodes and Martin Beech / Daniel James following the aforementioned defection of first round runners-up Alfie Hammond/Phil Boyle to the ranks of R2 Cup contenders.
