Everard and Alfa set for renewed R.A.C. Championship bid

John Everard and his crowd-pleasing Alfa Romeo Junior GT are already confirmed among the rapidly growing band of Category 1 cars committing to the 2014 West Wales Rally Spares R.A.C. Rally Championship.Everard and co-driver Mark Sharpley will start the season as defending champions in Category 1, despite having their 2013 campaign interrupted by a roll on the Tour of Hamsterley after a steering arm broke. But the Yorkshire driver knows that it will be a tough task to retain the Category 1 crown against increased competition.“I’m looking forward to more of the same in 2014 and having more Category 1 cars out there will make it even better,” he said. “I love the R.A.C. Championship: there is always a smile from the people who run the championship.”Everard and his team have worked hard to make the Alfa Romeo a competitive proposition and the car constantly pleases the fans as the only Alfa active in Category 1 for the pre ’68 cars.“I fell in love with Alfas from watching ‘The Graduate’ film with Dustin Hoffman,” he admits. “It is loads and loads of fun! Luckily enough I’ve been able to use a lot of GTA parts because in period they used GT Juniors with GTA parts. The main difference is the weight and my car weighs 920kg, but for rallying that’s not a problem.”However, never one to rest on his laurels, Everard has another project in the garage. “I’ve just bought another Alfa Junior GT and I’m going to start building it up for rallying. I’m semi-retired these days as my two sons run the business, JD Garage Equipment. My son James and I started it 12 years ago and we’ve now got 40 staff. Mark Sharpley, our accountant, is also my co-driver.”The 2014 R.A.C. Rally Championship starts on the Red Kite Stages on Sunday 2 February and more details are available from www.redkitestages.co.ukThe West Wales Rally Spares R.A.C. Rally Championship is the only historic championship that runs first on the road on all events.Martin Kaczmarski/Filipe Palmeiro (PL/PT)


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