Following his fantastic victory on his 4WD debut on the John Overend Memorial Stages Rally at Melbourne in May, Arron Newby made it two out of two with a sensational win on yesterday's Opposite Lock Stages Rally held at Manby Motorsport Complex in Lincolnshire.
On his first visit to the venue near Louth, the 17-year-old from Carnforth was once again driving the Robert Wiseman Dairies-sponsored and TEG Sport-prepared Group N Subaru Impreza for only the second time and in doing so, saw off a number of leading drivers in what was a full entry of 75 cars for the popular event.
In the car which was campaigned previously by Mark Higgins in the BRC, Newby and co-driver Martyn Taylor set second fastest time on the opening stage as they played themselves in on the venue's unique combination of 70% grass tracks and 30% tarmac runways but by the second, eight mile test, they hit the front and were never headed.
Newby gradually upped the pace during the first half of the rally as the part worn Pirelli K6 tyres proved ample for the job and by SS5, was well in command. With the aid of an in-car camera, Arron went even quicker on SS6 to claim the stage by some 20 seconds before ramming home his advantage on the final two tests to eventually win by a healthy 54 seconds.
Arron Newby: "This is fantastic, I could really get the hang of this! I'm loving driving the Subaru and especially like the four wheel drive power as it's like sitting at home and driving a Playstation, it's absolutely perfect. The venue was brilliant and certainly unique and the car ran faultlessly all day so a big thanks to the team and hopefully we can make it a hat trick of wins next time I get to drive it."
Stuart Newby, TEG Sport team owner: "We're all over the moon as this is another fantastic result. We were seeded at car number 6 and when I saw the entry list I knew there were some seriously quick competitors in it and thought it was going to be tough. But once again Arron has totally impressed me, he was going really well and he seems much more suited to four wheel drive than two wheel drive. We have a test on Tuesday in the Subaru on gravel and we'll look at getting a couple of events in before Arron's next scheduled outing on the Ulster Rally, maybe one in the Subaru and one in his normal BRC Skoda."
2012 MSA British Rally Championship
Round 1 - 24/25 February - Rallye Sunseeker International Rally, BournemouthRound 2 - 23/24 March - Bulldog International Rally North Wales - Welshpool, Powys Round 3 - 27/28 April - Pirelli International Rally - Carlisle, Cumbria Round 4 - 1/3 June - Jim Clark International Rally - Duns, Scottish Borders Round 5 - 17/18 August - Toddsleap International Rally NI - Antrim, Northern Ireland Round 6 - 28/29 September - International Rally Yorkshire - North Yorkshire
