Faulkner retains class lead after Granite battle - 07 May 2007

Gretna driver Mike Faulkner retained his Group N class lead in the 2007 Scottish Rally Championship following a closely fought battle on the Granite City Rally last weekend.

Faulkner, with Yorkshireman Peter Foy in the co-drivers seat, finished the event in 6th position in their Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 6 after a trouble-free run in hot and dusty conditions.

Hankook Tyres team-mate Steven Clark came home 22 seconds in arrears after his Mitsubishi suffered from fuel surge problems on the third of seven stages.

Partnered by Lee Kerr of Dumfries, Clark was relieved to make the finish and secure more important points towards the Group N championship.

The 45-mile event started with two asphalt spectator stages at Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre before moving to the Kincardinshire Forests near Stonehaven.

Clark had hoped to build on his excellent 3rd overall on the previous round but he encountered a setback on the first of the gravel tests: -

"As soon as I got to the first corner I knew there was something wrong. The car cut out under braking and hesitated under acceleration. I immediately suspected we were low on fuel and switched off the anti-lag system to conserve petrol," Steven explained.

"The stage was nearly 9 miles long and I didn’t think we would make it through. I switched on the spare pump hoping that would help but it made no difference. We were relieved to see the finish line and our service vehicle where the problem could be investigated."

Initial diagnosis indicated a calibration fault on the electronic fuel gauge which meant the crew thought they had ample fuel when in fact they had none. The decision was taken to run the car heavy on fuel for the remainder of the day.

Faulkner arrived at the first service at Stonehaven in a solid 6th overall and third in class after a sensible start.

"We kept things neat and tidy on the spectator stages knowing that it was easy to make a simple mistake and throw time away," he explained. The stages had a tricky ball-bearing like surface and it was very easy to spin or go off the road."


With his car returned to full speed, Steven set about recovering from a lowly 15th position and immediately jumped to 9th overall with a 5th fastest time on stage four. A half-spin on stage five costing 10 seconds didn’t prevent him from gaining another place and he entered second service at RAF Edzell in 8th position.

"We had a great run through stage 5 until the spin. The front wheel caught something coming out from a hairpin bend and it whipped us round. We had a couple of moments near the start though as well as we were trying quite hard!

"We were only 2 seconds ahead of Gordon Cunningham in 7th place and we were tied for time with Barry Groundwater who was one place behind. We had to keep pushing over the final two stages but we also had to drive with our heads to secure a finish."

Faulkner meanwhile continued his consistent run and set two 6th fastest times to retain his overall position with two stages remaining.

The sixth test at Drumtochty proved to be difficult for Clark who struggled against the newer car of Groundwater, which benefits from more power and electronic differentials compared to the mechanical versions in Clark and Faulkner’s older cars.

Clark felt he had driven the stage well but the time just wasn’t there. Nine seconds were lost but he retained his 8th position courtesy of a time two seconds faster than Cunningham.

On the final test, Faulkner and Clark tied for fourth equal fastest alongside Groundwater but more importantly were two seconds faster than Cunningham, which saw Steven secure 8th overall and 22 important championship points. Given his earlier problems he was pleased with the result: -


"I thought during stage three our rally was over so to make the finish in 8th position is a great result. The car ran faultlessly thereafter and we will cure the fuel level problem before the next event."

Faulkner was also pleased to record another finish before the championship turns to the asphalt of the Jim Clark Memorial Rally based at Duns on 27th May.

"I’ve only done three rallies in the car and I’m beginning to get to grips with it on gravel. The Jim Clark will be a new experience though and I’m looking forward to the challenge," said Faulkner.

Clark’s next event will be the Dumfries-based Scottish Rally as he has decided to miss the tarmac round to concentrate on improving his car. Clark’s co-driver Kerr explains: -

"The Jim Clark involves extra expense for tyres so we’ve decided to save that money and concentrate on making the car quicker in time for the Scottish Rally in June. We know we’re at a disadvantage to the newer cars but there are improvements we can make to narrow the gap. The Scottish is my home event so Steven is aiming for a podium finish and we’ll need the car to be at it’s best to achieve that result."