Photography by JCCB Rally Photography
A broken differential ruined Rob Cotton’s hopes of back-to-back class wins in the British Rally Championship.
The reigning John Easson Award winner made it to the end of stage three of Saturday’s Carlisle Stages before his Subaru Impreza threw in the towel.
“We got to the finish line of Buck Fell, took off our helmets and heard a horrible noise, which we thought was the driveshafts,” explained Rob, who was co-driven by Owen Paterson.
“But when we got the car into service we could see the gearbox casing was cracked, and had lost all gear oil. We had no option but to retire on the spot. It was my first ever mechanical retirement, and my first DNF in seven rallies.
“If I’m honest I wasn’t that disappointed, the car had been handling really badly, and I was having to wrestle with it even in a straight line . We found out later that the steering rack bolts had worked loose causing the rack to move from side-to-side.
“My job on Friday will be to take the gearbox apart and assess the damage. Hopefully, it will be a Good Friday if the sequential box is undamaged.
“On events like these, it’s hard to take any positives from the negatives, but there are some.
“Firstly, despite the handling issues our times were not too far off the National Class pacesetters, and when we retired we were 22nd overall, one place up on our very good seeding.
“And our early finish means we don’t now need new tyres for the next gravel event, the Grampian Rally and we didn’t use much race fuel, so that’s a bonus.”
Round three of the BRC is the Duns-based Jim Clark Rally on May 23.
*Congratulations to JEA runner-up Meghan O’Kane who made it two class wins in a row on the Carlisle Stages. Meghan and co-driver Nikki Addison spent the day swapping times with David Higgins in a Fiesta R2, but when the 2004 BRC Champion went off the road, the path was clear for the pair to take maximum points in BRC4.
Former JEA winner George Lepley was also in action in his Mitsubishi Galant VR4, but went out with a snapped rear suspension rose-joint on the final stage.
Rob Cotton would like to thank
2300 Club John Easson Award
Cotton Competition
North Coat Ltd
Questmead Ltd
Motordrive Seats
PD Extinguishers
Proflex UK
British Rally Championship
Project Podium Rally Foundation
Rally Stages
MRF Motorsport Tyres UK
Service & Sport
Cotton Competition
North Coat Ltd
Questmead Ltd
Motordrive Seats
PD Extinguishers
Proflex UK
British Rally Championship
Project Podium Rally Foundation
Rally Stages
MRF Motorsport Tyres UK
Service & Sport
Final Results for Printing
