Podium Joy For SG Petch In Yorkshire
Monday, October 8th, 2007The County Durham based rally mad Petch family enjoyed a strong return to rallying last weekend when both father and son claimed podiums in their respective rallies in Yorkshire last Saturday.
Steve Petch Senior, now officially retired, was dusting off the cobwebs and competing in the National section on board an SG Petch Motorsport run Hyundai Accent World Rally Car. Despite winning this event last year Steve faced stiff competition from the much newer World cars of Paul Bird and Steve Perez. However, showing he had lost none of his natural ability, Petch Senior set a string of top 3 times all day long, beating both of his rivals on a number of occasions before returning to Pickering with 3rd overall comfortably in the bag.
“I really enjoyed today. The car is a joy to drive and she ran faultlessly all day long. There was no way we were going to touch the newer cars so we just drove our own rally” said Steve.
Stephen Petch Junior, contesting the International event in a SG Petch Motorsport run Mitsubishi Evo 9, experienced a slightly more entertaining day. Struggling to slow down on a long straight on the opening stage Stephen flattened an artificial chicane and then stalled the car in the process. This time loss meant he was only 7th fastest in the Evo Challenge at the end of the stage.
However from then onwards Stephen pushed hard and was constantly inside the top 3 times for the rest of the day as he climbed back up the leader board to claim third in the Evo Challenge and seventh overall, showing once more that the young rally driver can take the fight to the British Rally Championship regulars, even on such a high speed event as this.