Alick in top gear at Severn Rally

Jun 5 2008 by George Topp

BOTHWELL teenager Alick Kerr got his Fiesta Sporting Trophy Campaign back on track with a solid sixth place finish in Saturday’s Severn Valley Rally, latest round of the 2008 Pirelli MSA Gravel Rally Championship.

The 19-year-old Scottish junior rally driver piloted his Leaker Direct Rangemaster Fiesta ST to sixth spot in the ultra-competitive one-make series.

In doing so, Kerr moved right back into the thick of the action in the overall FST standings at the midpoint of the season.

The Welsh rally saw Alick and co-driver Drew Sturrock set the seventh-fastest Fiesta time on the first Esgair Dafydd stage after a couple of overshoots on junctions cost them several seconds.

They continued to drive the tricky stages sensibly, finishing the day with fourth fastest ST time on the last stage.

“Although there were a few problems early on with the overshoots and the tyres going off, it was a good, solid result for us,” said Alick, who beat Scottish Fiesta ST rival Stevie Brown on all of the day’s stages.

“It will be a challenge to catch the leading guys in the Fiestas after our problems at the start of the season, so the aim now has to be to get some good times and good results

under our belts for the rest of the season,” continued the foundry engineer.

June is a rest month for the Fiesta ST competitors, but there’s only a short break for Kerr and Sturrock before they head to Dumfries to resume battle in the Scottish Rally Championship on the RSAC Scottish Rally on June 28.

After that, it’s back to Wales for the Swansea Bay Rally on July 19.

With reliability back in the car and pace coming on stream, two good results in two different countries are what the Leaker Direct Rangemaster team is targeting over the next seven weeks.