Following his fifth place on the Pro-Art Signs Red Dragon 1400 Rally, Nathan Crewe feels he is not far away from his return to form. Having only contested three rallies

in the last twelve months, Crewe was encouraged with the team performance on the Swansea based rally.

The fifth round of the BTRDA XSpec 1400 championship would consist of three visits to Margam and single visits to the forests of Argoed, Crynant and Walters Arena

would test both the Bromsgrove rally driver and his Birmingham co-driver, Chris Brooks.

A power disadvantage and intermittent gear selection problems would cause concern throughout the day. However, with the pair down in tenth place after the first

couple of stages, Crewe admitting to taking a steady approach in his MG ZR over the opening stages.

"The first two stages were very slippy and I was a little too cautious through those, which cost us some time."

The Midlands duo improved as the day progressed with some impressive times set despite the lack of power. The pair returned to the Swansea finish

keen to keep the progress achieved over the last two rallies moving forward for the rest of the season.

"The result is very important to us at present as we are working all the time on improving the car." commented Crewe,

"We worked hard today, I felt I generally drove well to get as much out of the car as I could and believe I am back on the pace but seem to be losing out on power by

50BHP to the front runners. I hope we can rectify that by the end of the season and should be more competitive." 

The next event in the calendar will be the Dukeries Rally in Mansfield on Saturday 17th June.

Nathan and Chris are supported in the BTRDA XSpec 1400 championship by Grosvenor Repair Centre, Cottrill Transport, Questmead and Silkolene.