THE Bromsgrove rally team of Geoff Cottrill and Nathan Crewe made a cautious start to the BTRDA Rally Championship at the Weir Engineering Wyedean Forest Rally on Saturday.
Crews had to contend with torrential rain and hailstones, making the course in the Forest of Dean even more difficult.
Cottrill and Crewe were seeded 50th out of 135 starters in their MG Metro 6R4 and soon found that the awesome power propelling them forward was not suited to the conditions at all.
Finishing 87th after the first stage, they steadily got to grips with the conditions to finish the event in 56th place overall.
That was no mean feat however, as 42 competitors failed to even make the finish line.
At the same time, Halesowen’s Steve Black and John Connor were starting to climb the leader board.
However, the weather turned against them, with the sun appearing which, aided by a delay caused by another competitor’s accident, began to dry out the tracks.
The other more powerful machinery then started taking over the pace, leaving them in 39th place overall and seventh in class.
The second round of the championship, the Malcolm Wilson Rally, takes place in Cumbria, on Saturday, March 8, and both crews will be looking to improve.
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