My new co-driver, John Bond and myself were picking up the pace on the second round of the Peugeot 205 Challenge on the Lincoln Rally (Binbrook), a tarmac event just outside Lincoln.
We had made changes to the car from the previous round and it seemed to pay off. We had invested in a change of suspension for this event shelving the Gravel springs used on the previous round and replacing them with Tarmac springs. The new suspension took a bit of getting used to but after the first couple of stages we got into the groove with the improved car and the times consistently improved throughout day. We had settled in nicely by the last stage and set the 12th fastest time beating 27 other competitors.
Winning the championship this year is not top of our priority list, however, the progress we are making cannot be ignored. We collected a further 80 points towards this year’s campaign by taking 4th from 17 in our class. We’re not looking to be heroes this year and at the moment would rather have the miles than worry too much about fastest times, we hope this  will naturally follow. We feel that building up to the pace and gaining confidence as well competence is the way forward, whilst not risking damaging the car too much and potentially missing any round of the challenge.
We finished 9th Peugeot 205 1.6 Challenge Car out of the 42 contestants and 11th overall. A fabulous result for only our second event together and the consistent progression is hopefully a sign of things to come.
We’re looking forward to the next round, the Newtown Rally on 15th June, which will be the first time in the Welsh forest, where we will be contesting on the same stages used by the World Rally drivers in the British round of the World Rally Championship.

Stefan Davis