Team SG Petch Scalextric Prepared For Jim Clark
The SG Petch Scalextric Team, supported by The Sun newspaper, Virgin money and AVit Tools, has spent the 6 weeks between the opening round of the 2006 Tesco 99 Octane British Rally championship, the Pirelli International Rally in Carlisle and next weekends all tarmac Scottish event, the Jim Clark International Rally, preparing and fine tuning both cars.
Young Stephen Petch Junior has had a busy time in the past month, first contesting the Severn Valley Rally in Wales where severe dust hampered his early progress. But once the weather had improved Stephen immediately showed his talent by setting a string of stunning stage times as he set about climbing back up the leader board, moving from 7th to 4th in class in 1 stage alone!
Stephen eventually missed out on winning the Mitsubishi Evo Cup by a mere 4 seconds after an eventful day in the forests.
The car was then altered to tarmac specifications and Stephen and co-driver Michael Wilkinson headed to Belgium to contest the Ypres Rally. Despite struggling with a couple of punctures, which cost him time, Stephen was happy about how the event had gone and is confident that the extra tarmac time in the car would assist him on this weekends rally.
Both Stephen Petch Junior and Rob Gill had good results on last years Jim Clark Rally, with Stephen finishing 6th in class, ahead of the eventual 2005 Production class Champion Barry Clark. Rob finished 11th in class, sandwiched between Irish competitor Aaron Machale and previous British Rally Champion David Higgins.
The Jim Clark, the season’s first tarmac event is also the only asphalt rally to be run in Scotland, where the competitors compete on closed off public roads which are both technical and demanding. As a result all of the competitors will put a great deal of emphasis on the notes they make during the recce, which although done at 20 mph still gives the drivers and co-drivers an idea of what the roads are like.
The rally begins from Kelso Race Course on Friday afternoon at 3:30pm and finishes on Saturday evening after 150 stage miles of treacherous tarmac rallying.
For more on the Jim Clark Rally please visit www.jimclarkrally.com