Greer grabs the title!
With the recent tragic events and the focus of the world attention on the rally, it was a sombre mood that surrounded the seventh and penultimate round of the Vodka Kick supported 2007 Fiesta SportingTrophy. The organisers of the McRae Stages after consultation with the McRae family decided that the event would go ahead as planned in celebration of the life of rallying hero, Colin McRae.
With 45 miles of classic forest roads in just four special stages around the picturesque county town of Perth, it was sure to be another hotly contested round of the FST UK series.
With two rounds to go in the series, three drivers where still in with a chance to be able to take the FST title – however, 24 hours before the start of the rally, the three became two as 20 year old Tom Walster from Nottingham withdrew his entry from the rally. Co-driver Tim Sturla was unable to travel to the rally after a member of his family was taken into hospital. Tom decided it would be better to withdraw than to try to replace the experienced Sturla at short notice.
This left 18 year old Jonathan Greer from Carryduff, Northern Ireland and 18-year-old Alastair Fisher from Enniskillen, Northern Ireland to fight it out. Greer with regular co-driver Jonny Hart lead Fisher in the points standings and was determined to push for championship success.
Fisher had pre-event dramas of his own as his regular Ford Fiesta ST developed an engine problem two days before the event. After consultation with his team chief, Gerry McGarrity, the decision was taken to change their entry to a replacement car, which gave the team a fraught time making the final preparations.
The first stage was the 12.7 miles of Griffin 1 and it was Jonathan Greer that took the fastest time – five seconds faster than Adam Gould, 20 from Bristol who once again had the experienced Scott Martin in the co-driver’s seat. Third on the stage, reinforcing the improvement in performance over recent events was 19 year old Liam Regan from Belfast with co-driver Mark Ammonds.
Despite running ahead of the 4WD competitors, a number of crews suffered punctures in the slippery conditions. Alastair Fisher, Fraser Jones, 26 from Ayr and James Everard, 21 from Hull all lost time, spoiling their chances of a good run.
After the first service of the day at Aberfeldy, the crews turned their attention to the 10.5 miles of Drummond Hill. Leader after stage one, Jonathan Greer caught a slower car on the stage loosing an estimated 10s and the lead to Adam Gould. Second fastest on the stage was 18 year old Elfyn Evans from Machynlleth with the experienced Richard Edwards co-driving. Alastair Fisher was working hard to acclimatise himself to his replacement car and was struggling with an inconsistent brake pedal on the stages. In trouble on the stage was Liam Regan, who lost over six minutes when he suffered a double front puncture which mean’t that they had to stop and change the tyres mid-stage dropping them right down the leaderboard from third to last.
After a second and final visit to the Aberfeldy service, crews set off for the 9.3 miles of the Griffin 2 stage on gravel roads used in the morning by the entire rally and consequently much rougher than the first passage. Fastest on the stage was Adam Gould, five seconds up on closest challenger, Jonathan Greer. Amazingly, three crews shared the third fastest position, Elfyn Evans, Alastair Fisher and Fraser Jones all finishing the stage on the same second – five seconds slower than Greer.
Eduardo Valdes, 24 originally from Chile and now living in the UK suffered a puncture half way through the stage, knocking the bumper off the car and dropping one minute to his rivals.
With just the 9.9 miles of the Craigvinnean stage to go, Adam Gould led Jonathan Greer by just 5s with Elfyn Evans in third and Alastair Fisher in fourth. However, it was all to change on the final stage as Adam Gould clipped a corner with the rear of the car, breaking the rear stub axle, loosing the wheel and retiring on the spot. Once again Gould’s efforts to win an FST round where thwarted at the final step. Unaware of the drama behind him, Jonathan Greer set fastest time on the final stage, seven seconds faster than Elfyn Evans with Alastair Fisher third.
The result of this dramatic final stage meant that Jonathan Greer and co-driver Jonny Hart took the victory and with it, the championship title – making them the 2007 VK supported Fiesta SportingTrophy UK champions – an excellent result after a superb consistent season that saw them take three victories.
Second on the rally and showing the kind of form that highlights just how much they improved over the course of the season was Elfyn Evans and co-driver Richard Edwards.
Third on the event, despite the first stage puncture and initial brake issues with their last minute replacement car was Alastair Fisher with his co-driver, Paul Morris.
Fourth on the event was Barry Greer, older brother of Jonathan, taking his best finish of the season and making it a double celebration for the DGM team.
In fifth was local driver, Fraser Jones, despite suffering an accident in pre-event testing and a puncture on the first stage he was able to re-pay the efforts of his team and bring the car home in fifth.
Another driver to make the finish on his first event in the UK was 27 year old, Lohith Urs from Mysore in India who braved a 20 hour flight to come to sample the UK forests, finishing a very respectable 43rd overall, enjoying the experience and vowing to return in the future.
With both Jonathan Greer and Adam Gould setting two fastest stage times each, the victor of the Castrol Hard Charger award was decided by the first crew to score the fastest time and this was overall winner, Jonathan Greer.
The winner of the Competition Car Insurance supported Best Improvement on Seeding award went to 20 year old Barry Greer from Carryduff, Northern Ireland, elder brother of FST winner.
Despite their championship success, the celebrations where short-lived as both Jonathan Greer and Alastair Fisher had to quickly leave for Edinburgh airport and fly over to Cork, Southern Ireland for the final round of the FST Ireland series, where Fisher held the points advantage over Greer in another three way fight for the series.
Jonathan Greer, 18 from Carryduff, Northern Ireland said:
“I am chuffed to win the championship with one round to go. It has been tough going this year as both Alastair and Adam have gone hard. Finishing second in the FST Ireland series has made a good weekend even better”
1 Jonathan Greer / Jonny Hart 44.12 30
2 Elfyn Evans / Richard Edwards 44.47 25
3 Alastair Fisher / Paul Morris 45.11 22
4 Barry Greer / John Lemon 45.30 20
5 Fraser Jones / Lee Burgess 45.31 18
6 Bobby Mitchell / Seb Marshall 45.59 16
7 Richard Archer / Chris Brooks 46.46 15
8 James Everard / David Jobling 46.56 14
9 Eduardo Valdes / Diego Rumbo 47.47 13
10 Liam Regan / Mark Ammonds 52.41 12
The final round of the FST championship moves to Wales for the Bulldog National Rally on 20th October 2007.