SWISHER MSA English Rally Championship - Round 1: Wyedean Rally, 11 February

The 2012 MSA English Rally Championship kicked off with Saturday’s Wyedean Rally, on which the top championship crew was Julian Wilkes and Will Rutherford in third overall.

A total of 75 crews registered for the class-based championship, which is open to two-wheel-drive cars of up to 2000cc. Wilkes and Rutherford won the 1400cc class, and despite suffering a puncture on SS4 they were beaten overall only by two four-wheel-drive turbocharged cars.

Ian Barrett and Gavin Wright hired a Rally First Nissan Micra from Rallyschool for the event and also had an excellent run, finishing more than four minutes ahead of the other standard car class runners.  

Results – class winnersClass E1 Ian Barrett (RF Nissan Micra) 1h4m28sClass E2 Julian Wilkes (Vauxhall Nova) 57m17sClass E3 Neil Matthews (Vauxhall Nova) 1h3m55sClass E4 Matt Griffin (Ford Fiesta ST) 1h14m44sClass E5 Grant Rees (Nissan Micra) 1h07m22s

Championship positions (provisional) after Round 11 Julian Wilkes – 25 points= Ian Barrett – 25= Neil Matthews – 25= Grant Rees – 255 Alan McDowall – 23= Matthew Cathcart – 23

 Next round: Malcolm Wilson Rally, 3 March