Arron Newby bounced back from his recent disappointment of retiring from the Manx National Rally with another superb performance to take a top seven placing on this weekend's Jim Clark National Rally.
Contesting the latest round of the REIS Get Connected MSA Asphalt Rally Championship on the closed public roads around the Scottish borders, the 18-year-old Lancastrian battled against tricky damp conditions and the more powerful cars to claim a class win in the Pirelli-sponsored and TEG Sport -prepared Subaru Impreza.
Keen to lay the ghost to rest after crashing out on last year's event, Newby along with Manx co driver Rob Fagg didn't do their confidence much good when a high speed moment on the Abbey St Bathans stage on Friday night saw them scrape a wall but they reached the overnight halt in 16th overall and sixth in class.
Damp patches greeted the crews for day two and Newby made a steady start to climb into the top ten overall before upping the pace as the day progressed. It wasn't long before he was up to eighth overall, taking the class lead in the process and with one last push on the final stage in the wet; he elevated himself to a fantastic seventh overall and also took the class win.
Arron Newby: "I was a little bit nervous after crashing out last year and then last night, when the car started swapping ends at high speed, I held my breath and we were lucky to get away with just catching a wall. It was all quite new to me but it's all part of the learning process and we came away with a good result all things considered. Once again thanks to Rob, the TEG Sport team as well as the marshals and organisers and it's great to claim yet another class win."
Stuart Newby, TEG Sport Team Owner: "It was important that Arron bounced back in positive fashion after the Manx and also what happened here last year and we couldn't have asked any more from him. We came with the intention of finishing inside the top ten and we achieved that. This was a new experience as the sheer high speeds are like nowhere else and the data showed the car was doing 130mph at times! But Arron got round, learned a lot and will build on this unique experience. The Pirelli tyres were again fantastic and the car never missed a beat so we will come back next year and aim to improve further."
