Pirelli Star Driver finalist Osian Pryce has taken his fourth consecutive win on Pirelli tyres, at the opening round of this year’s British Rally Championship.
The Pirelli Carlisle Richard Burns Foundation Rally is now in its 23rd year of Pirelli sponsorship, meaning that it has been backed by Pirelli since two years before 21-year-old Pryce was born.
“I’m delighted to have achieved this: the tyres were perfect and they lasted even longer than I thought they would,” said the Welshman, who drove a Citroen DS3 R3T to victory after 10 stages in the Kielder Forest roads close to Carlisle. “We changed the tyres today but in actual fact there was no need at all: we could have used them again.
The current Pirelli Star Driver, Daniel McKenna, finished runner-up, 46 seconds behind Pryce, despite having limited experience of driving on gravel. The Irishman was elected to a Pirelli-funded prize drive on all the rounds of the British Rally Championship this year, with his DGM-run Citroen DS3 R3T running in distinctive Pirelli colours.
“I’d say that I’ve driven 10 asphalt rallies for every gravel rally I’ve ever done, so I’ve learned a huge amount about both the car and the tyres over the last couple of days,” said McKenna. “We set a fastest stage time yesterday and we were quite close to Osian throughout, so I’m very happy. The tyres were absolutely perfect from start to finish: I didn’t have a single puncture or anything like that, despite roads that were very challenging. In fact, on the last stage we broke a front-left suspension arm on the car.”
Both drivers used Pirelli’s K4 compound on the opening day of the rally on Saturday before switching to the softer K6 compound on Sunday, which coped well with ground that was made softer and looser by overnight rain, which persisted throughout Sunday morning to make driving conditions even more demanding.
The K family of Pirelli rally tyres benefits from a distinctive tread pattern that is designed to evacuate gravel and loose stones extremely efficiently, providing grip and traction even under the extreme conditions of rallying. While these specialised tyres are extremely fast and light, they are also very strong: none of the lead cars suffered from any punctures or tyre-related issues at all.
Pirelli tyres were also on the winning car in the national class: the Ford Focus RS WRC of Peter Taylor, another Pirelli Star Driver finalist.
The next round of the British Rally Championship takes place on asphalt at the Jim Clark Rally from 30-31 May. Before then, McKenna will contest the Manx National Rally next weekend, driving a Ford Escort MkII on Pirelli P7 Corsa Classic tyres.
