Girl power victorious in North Wales

Last weekend’s Bulldog International Rally of North Wales saw Australian Molly Taylor win the opening round of the MSA British Rally Championship’s 2009 Swift Sport Cup with English co-driver Jemma Bellingham alongside. In only her second event in Britain, the 20 year-old Aussie 1600 Champion took the fight to the boys, surprising many with her pace from the outset. Seasoned one-make championship campaigner Richard Sykes took first blood, having moved up from the 2008 BRC Challenge and swapped from Fiesta to Suzuki power, he and co-driver Simon Taylor stopped the clocks in the wet conditions, just half a second ahead of the BRC’s only all-girl crew at the end of stage one. Taylor responded on the second though, moving just over eight seconds clear at the first service halt. “We were right on the pace,” she explained, “even though it is five months since we last drove together, me and Jemma obviously get on well together.” Luke Pinder and new co-driver Peter Scott held third, determined to try and overcome wayward handling caused by a broken rear shock absorber. The crew didn’t have a spare and with budgets tight, the 2008 Pirelli Star Driver finalist decided to cope with it for the remainder of the rally. 2008 runners up Gordon “Gogsie” Nichol and Emma Morrison admitted to struggling back in fourth. They had decided to make their own pace-notes for the first time, but despite spending plenty of time in Scotland, practicing the new system and moving to a left hand drive recce car, it was just not gelling in the Swift. 2008 BRC Challenge winners David Harrison and Glyn Thomas’s pace-notes were working fine, which is one of the reasons the Manx youngster was frustrated to only be fifth. “The notes are really good,” he shrugged, “But the times just aren’t there.” With all but Nichol being newcomers to the series, the frustration of Nick Everard and Chris Davies was compounded when they failed to finish the first stage. Having gone off before the finish meant they could not gauge their stage times and will have to start again from scratch on the next round. The following two stages were a nail-biting affair, the lead swinging first back to Sykes on stage three, just two seconds ahead of Taylor, then back to the Australian. But this time it was Pinder two seconds behind, having set two storming fastest times on the 16 mile forest stages. Sykes explained his time loss on stage four at service, “Luke was quick on stage three, but we hit a big pothole and bent the front suspension wishbone on four,” he said, “It meant we had to back off quite a lot, particularly where there were big fresh-air drops.” On stage five Taylor put on a spurt, taking over thirty seconds off both Pinder and Sykes, but behind them the battle for fourth wasn’t over yet. Harrison and Nichol, who had never been more than a handful of seconds apart, changed places with Harrison over thirty seconds quicker on the penultimate stage. The saying that “It isn’t over until it’s over” rang true for two crews on the final test, when both Sykes and Harrison did not emerge from the Welsh forest. Sykes’ great battle at the front was ended with a broken gearbox, while Harrison was reported off the road in last year’s Championship winning car. With a healthy 36 second cushion, Taylor & Bellingham eased off, leaving Pinder & Scott to take their third stage win and a creditable second place. Nichol & Morrison took a consolation third place, just reward for persevering with their new pace-note system. But the first place champagne at the Bala finish was reserved for the girls, Molly and Jemma already looking forward to the next round, where they will try to uphold female honours on the Pirelli International Rally from 17-18th April.