Fin McCaul scored his fourth Diesel Rally Cup win of the 2008 Tesco 99 Octane MSA British Rally Championship season, to make his position at the front of the Cup unassailable after Rally Yorkshire last weekend.
He and co-driver James Smith were reunited after a two year break, but the pair quickly gelled, taking stage wins from their rivals Steve and Tony Graham on each of the morning’s stages.
The black BMW 120D was certainly entertaining on the Championship’s return to the loose forestry stages, Fin commenting early on, “We seem to have gone backwards with our development of the suspension, the back end is all over the place.” But he was reassured when informed that the whole field had struggled on the morning’s marble-like surface.
The Graham brothers had no answer to McCaul’s pace, although they did take a stage win in the Pickering Showground spectator stage, albeit by a mere tenth of a second. “We had a bit of a scare this morning when there was a loud bang from what sounded like the transmission,” Explained Steve at service, “But it hasn’t recurred so we’re hopeful it was unimportant.”
After stage eight, with McCaul already pulling comfortably ahead, the Grahams appeared unexpectedly back at service, the problem having manifested as a broken differential.
McCaul’s victory effectively secures the Diesel Rally Cup for the second year in a row; nobody now able to catch the amiable UK domiciled Irishman. ”It is great to win again,” he said, “but I feel sorry for Steve and Tony, there’s been great camaraderie all year. These cars are quicker than people think and I hope more people sign up to run in the diesels next year. And the fuel bills aren’t too bad either, we did the whole rally on a single tank!”
News, championship points, reports from the stages, photos and more audio interviews with the top drivers are available atwww.rallybrc.co.uk
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