Sam Touzel has won his first Protyre Motorsport UK Asphalt Rally Championship event after a scorching performance in his Smart Scaffolding Ford Fiesta Rally2 on the Dunoon Presents Argyll Rally (20/21 June).
Co-driven by Max Freeman, the Jersey driver recorded a clean sweep of seven fastest times on Friday night’s opening leg to go into the overnight halt with a 24 second lead.
He set a further six fastest and three second fastest times on Saturday’s nine stages to dominate the event in his PB Engineering-prepared car to beat his nearest BTRDA championship rivals by 1min 26secs at the end of the 16 stage / 67.57 stage mile event.
Hugh Brunton was second for much of Friday, before dropping time on the first run over the Oyster Catcher stage (SS7) and dropping to sixth. Co-driven by Richard Wardle, he pushed hard in his Volkswagen Polo GTI R5 on Saturday and got back into the Protyre Asphalt runners-up spot with three stages to go.
Jason Pritchard/Phil Clarke made a cautious start and were faster on Saturday thanks to some overnight set-up changes to their North Road Garage/Guttercrest Toyota GR Yaris Rally2.
Only 10 seconds separated them from second-place points at the finish, although the three-time Protyre Asphalt champions maintain their overall lead in the series – albeit just one point ahead of Touzel.
