24 year old Swedish rising star Fredrik Ahlin won round 3 of the 2016 MSA British Rally Championship, the Pirelli Carlisle Rally, becoming the third different winner in this year's BRC. Contested in the notoriously challenging and rapid Kielder Forest, Ahlin took the win by 27 seconds from Matthew Wilson, who in turn had 3 seconds over the charging Elfyn Evans in third.
Matthew Wilson returned to the BRC for the first time in 11 years, at the wheel of a Ford Fiesta R5 Evo with Scotsman Stuart Loudon in the co-driver's seat. He had a solid rally apart from suffering a puncture on Sunday's opening test. Welshman Elfyn Evans took third overall, but was left frustrated after a puncture on day 1 saw him catapult down the leaderboard. His comeback was thwarted by the sheer pace of the turbo charged, four wheel drive machinery the top guys were using. As several drivers beat the bogey time, the times were nullified which restricted the amount of time the WRC star was able to claw back. Fellow Welshman Tom Cave stayed out of trouble to take fourth overall, being pipped to third position right at the end of the event. He will be happy enough, but was never really on terms with the leading quartet of drivers (Ahlin, Evans, Wilson and Bogie) aboard his Ford Fiesta R5. Marty McCormack made it four different tyre manufacturers (Pirelli, Michelin, DMACK and Kumho) in the top five positions with fifth place overall in his Skoda Fabia S2000. Fifth marked McCormack's first points of the season, and was another impressive display in an inferior car. After taking second on the Circuit of Ireland rally, Jonny Greer and Kirsty Riddick took sixth overall on the Pirelli in their Citroen DS3 R5, to lie fifth in the championship standings. Desi Henry guided his Skoda Fabia R5 to seventh overall, a mere 3 seconds ahead of fellow Skoda driver Neil Simpson, who notched up his first BRC finish since the year 2000. Ford Fiesta R5 runners Jamie Anderson and Max Vatanen completed the top 10. Robert Duggan took his second consecutive DMACK Junior BRC win for the works Vauxhall team, edging out Gus Greensmith and Adam Bustard. Matt Edwards took his second BRC2 win of the year, with Chris Wheeler taking the spoils in BRC3 with his R3 Citroen DS3. Scottish driver Donnie MacDonald won his second consecutive BRC National event in his Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX. However fellow Scottish drivers David Bogie and Euan Thorburn didn't achieve the results they were after. Bogie in his Fabia R5 was right in the mix after day 1, trailing CA1 Sport team mate Fredrik Ahlin by less than 10 seconds before Sunday's action. However, the multiple Scottish champion out braked himself on Sunday's opener, tried to use the ditch on the outside of the bend to get round the corner but his wheel got caught and his Skoda was sucked into the ditch head first. Thorburn suffered yet more teething problems with his Peugeot 208 T16 R5. The team faced a massive task to get the car to the start after issues on last weekend's Speyside Stages rally in Moray, but the car was hit by a separate issue that took him out of contention. The next round of the BRC is the RSAC Scottish Rally on 25 June. Fredrik Ahlin played his Joker on the Pirelli meaning he now heads Elfyn Evans by 5 points in the championship, with it still all to play for.
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BRITISH RALLYINGArticles covering rally in Britain, looking at the MSA BRC Archives
September 2017
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