Callum Black has taken the lead of the Protyre Motorsport UK Asphalt Rally Championship for the first time this year after scoring a stunning victory on the Nigel Ferguson Fabricators Tour of Epynt.
Co-driven by Jack Morton, the 586 Sport driver was 10th in the points standings after the Manx but has since scored 88 points out of a possible 90 on the last three rounds to now head the table.
Callum’s magnificent drive over Epynt was bookmarked by two dramas. Firstly, the turbo pipe came off his Pallas Connections Ford Fiesta Rally2 twice on the road section between the start in Llandovery and SS1 on Saturday.
Not knowing what caused it, Callum turned the boost down in the hopes that it wouldn’t happen on a stage, and since he was running out of order he was delayed on SS2 when he caught a car on the New Road.
After a trouble-free middle part of the event, Callum then had to complete the eighth and final stage on Sunday with a hole in the exhaust manifold. Yet none of those worries prevented him scoring a maiden win over the famous mid-Wales military range.
Mark Kelly led after Saturday’s four stages and went into the overnight halt with a slender three second lead over Callum.
They dropped 17 seconds to Callum right at the start of SS6 when the rear of their Kelmore Škoda Fabia R5 broke loose on the jump just before Llandeilo’r Fân Triangle and spun a full 180 degrees. The incident cost them the lead but they held on to finish second.
Kevin Davies/Owain Davies were one of the few crews that didn’t start Saturday’s leg on wet tyres – which considering most of the New Road (SS2) was dry was a masterstroke.
The Pencader driver admitted driving the Cobra Hydraulics Volkswagen Polo GTI R5 in such conditions was a “massive learning curve” – but he’s clearly a very quick learner as he held third overnight, just 13 seconds behind the leader.
The Melvyn Evans Motorsport team stiffened the suspension as Sunday’s dry stages unfolded and Kevin continued to fly – with he, Callum and Mark setting exactly the same time on the 13.64 mile penultimate stage, stopping the clocks equal fastest on 11 minutes. Third fastest time on the final stage cemented an excellent podium finish.
