Stuart Jones and Ross Butler, competing in only their third event together in a four wheel drive rally car, clinched victory on the opening round of the 2005 Mitsubishi Ralliart Evolution Challenge yesterday, the Rallye Sunseeker. The pair spent the entire event in a close-fought battle with rivals Phillip and Simon Morrow, with stage times regularly differing by less than a second. Jones & Butler arrived at the finish in Bournemouth town centre with a winning margin of less than four seconds, after 75 stage miles. The first two stages of the event took place on Friday night, in front of huge crowds of cheering fans on the Bournemouth promenade. However, the crews were greeted by snow flurries as they left the service area to head for the first ‘proper’ stage on Saturday morning.
Jones and Butler began in a conservative fashion, to measure the conditions and establish a pace to ensure a solid finish on this, the first round of the Evo Challenge. However, on the event’s fourth stage, Stuart ran wide and hit an earth bank with a wheel and dislodged a tyre, losing air pressure in the process. This allowed rival Phillip Morrow to take over the class lead and set the scene for a rally-long battle.
The wheel was soon changed and Jones & Butler set about curing an oversteering Mitsubishi EvoVIII by altering the transmission settings. This resulted in a set-up which was far more to Jones’ liking and allowed them to push harder, clawing back time lost as a result of the dislodged tyre. Unfortunately, stage 6 saw a small spin and challenge veteran Morrow stretched his class lead by a little more than seven seconds – the time lost by Jones & Butler. The next loop of stages saw the Morrow and Jones crews trading times, the latter entering service after closing the gap by 2 seconds over the short and twisty stages.
“I’m still trying to find the perfect set-up for the car,” said Jones “but we’re getting there. The times are very close to Phillip’s [Morrow] and he is driving extremely well.”
Co-driver Ross Butler explained; “It’s going to be difficult to get much time back on the next loop of stages, as they’re all quite short. But the longer stages in the final loop should give us an opportunity to establish a good rhythm to try to get past Phillip.”
Wider Silverstone gravel tyres and a higher ride height to cope with the re-run stages allowed the crew to maintain the pressure on Morrow, in a car that now felt more stable. Entering the final loop of stages, Morrow and Jones were separated by just ten seconds. On the first of the final three stages, Jones & Butler completed the course almost seven seconds quicker, to reduce the gap to just over three seconds. The event’s penultimate stage saw the times almost identical while on the last stage, Jones & Butler again went through over six seconds faster, to take the class win.
“That was an incredible day,” said an ecstatic Jones. “Up until the start of those last three stages, we’d been going at a fairly safe pace. But on those last three, we gave it absolutely everything. This is a fantastic result – we couldn’t have hoped for a better start to the season. The battle we had with Phillip was excellent – a really good clean fight. He’s driven very well all day and I’ve really enjoyed it.”
Commenting on the day’s competition, co-driver Ross Butler said; “It’s been quite a stressful day but with this result, a very rewarding one. Going into the last loop, we knew exactly what we had to do and we did it – everything worked perfectly. I’m delighted with this result – we couldn’t have asked for more.”
The Evo Challenge now heads for the English/Scottish border for the appropriately-named Borders Rally, based in Jedburgh, on the 19th March.
PROVISIONAL RESULTS
Overall Results – Rallye Sunseeker1 David Higgins/Daniel Barritt Hyundai Accent WRC 1:07:14.92 Marcus Dodd/Andrew Bargery Hyundai Accent WRC +24.6s3 Paul Bird/Ian Widress Ford Focus WRC +40.811 Stuart Jones/Ross Butler Mitsubishi Lancer EvoVIII+3m55.4s
RALLYE SUNSEEKER RESULTS UPDATE
As a result of a technical regulation infringement at post-event scrutineering, the car of Phillip and Simon Morrow was excluded from the event.
Therefore, the results in the Mitsubishi Ralliart Evolution Challenge are:
Mitsubishi Ralliart Evolution Challenge Results1 Stuart Jones/Ross Butler Mitsubishi Lancer EvoVIII1:11:16.32 Richard Hill/Daniel Stone Mitsubishi Lancer EvoVII +1m03.3s3 Nick Elsmore/Nigel Gardner Mitsubishi Lancer EvoVII +1m10.2s
Mitsubishi Ralliart Evolution Challenge Driver Standings1 Stuart Jones (Welshpool) 10 Points 2 Richard Hill 9 Points3 Nick Elsmore 8 Points
Mitsubishi Ralliart Evolution Challenge Co-Driver Standings1 Ross Butler (Burgess Hill) 10 Points 2 Daniel Stone 9 Points3 Nigel Gardner 8 Points
