Championship Contenders Coming To Carlisle

There has been an encouraging rush of entries for the Pirelli Carlisle Rally, the 3rd round of the MSA British Rally Championship with a host of leading contenders stating an early intent to be contesting the Carlisle based event which runs over the weekend of April 30th/May 1st and again features the ultra fast stages of the giant Kielder Forest complex. Amongst the early entries are 3 cars from CA1 Sport, with Frederick Ahlin/Morten Erik Abrahamsen, runners up on the opening round, in a Ford Fiesta, they are backed up by David Bogie/Kevin Rae in a Skoda Fabia, they were 4th on the opening round, the Mid Wales Stages and are previous outright winners of the Pirelli Carlisle Rally. The third CA1 Sport car is a Fiesta for Alex Laffey/Andrew Roughead who retired in Wales with engine problems. Back after missing the championship’s 2nd round will be Norwegian star Sindre Furuseth for only his second experience of British forest rallying, his debut on the Mid Wales Stages with the Renault Twingo saw him take the Sort Oil Spirit of the Rally award. Tom Cave/James Morgan also had a good run in Wales, finishing 3rd in their Ford Fiesta and will be a crew to watch as will be Marty McCormack/David Moynihan in the Tiger Risk Skoda Fabia, McCormack scored a very comprehensive victory on the Pirelli Historic rally in 2007 so obviously has a liking for the fast flowing Kielder stages. The 2016 British Rally Championship is certainly attracting a wide variety of cars to the series with the early entries featuring former NGK Star of the Future winner Chris Wheeler in a Citroen DS3, Matt Edwards, 7th on the opening round in a Mitsubishi Evo 9, Thomas Morton/Jack Preston (Skoda Fabia), Jamie Jukes/Dave Williams (Mitsubishi Mirage) and Meirion Evans/Jonathon Jackson (Ford Fiesta ). The Pirelli Carlisle Rally is based at the Borderway Auction Mart complex, adjacent to Junction 43 of M6.