By Paul Evans
Jason Pritchard has won the Protyre Motorsport UK Asphalt Rally Championship for a second year in a row, beating arch-rival Damian Cole to the title by just one point after a thrilling final round on the Ford Parts Cheviot Stages Rally on Otterburn.
Having won the British Historic Rally Championship three times (2015, ’16 and ’17) and the Asphalt title last year, Pritchard’s latest success is his fifth major rally title in as many years.
Only Pritchard and Cole could win the Asphalt title as they entered the final event of the year – and so close were they that there was a strong possibility that it would go down to a tiebreak. Cole was ahead on points heading to the Northumberland military range, and increased his advantage by setting fastest time on the opening stage – meaning any tiebreak decision would go in his favour.
However, a late gearbox issue in his Get Connected/Energizer-backed Ford Fiesta WRC hampered his progress, and without second gear he pushed hard on the closing stages to come to within three seconds of event winner Alan Kirkaldy.
Co-driven by Phil Clarke, Pritchard had himself been slowed with an intermittent misfire in his North Road Garage Ford Focus WRC05, but pressed on to finish third.
You’d be forgiven therefore to think that Cole, having finished ahead of Pritchard, had won his seventh Asphalt title – but with only five best scores to count from seven rounds, the two scores to drop rule was to prove otherwise. With two wins and three seconds, the Abergavenny driver finished on 144 points – but with three wins, a second and a third place finish, Pritchard had amassed a total of 145 points. That extra victory tipped the balance in Pritchard favour, while Cole had effectively lost the title by three seconds – the gap between him and the event winner on Otterburn proving equally as decisive.
“Winning the Protyre Asphalt Rally Championship title again hasn’t sunk in yet – it probably will somewhere on the motorway on the way home,” said Pritchard at the finish. “It’s been a stressful day, I can tell you! I’m just glad to see the finish with all the issues we’ve had, the car’s not been running properly all day with a misfire. To win five championships in consecutive years by winning the National Asphalt Championship for the last two years is just a brilliant feeling. I can’t thank Phil [Clarke, co-driver] enough; he’s done an excellent job, as have the rest of the team. They’ve encouraged me at the low moments of the event, it’s a family team.”
“Our gearbox issues haven’t helped, and I pressed on with it for the last two stages which hasn’t done it any good,” said Cole. “I went for it on the first stage, but overall I’ve been three seconds too slow. It’s been difficult using different co-drivers this year, but the car has got better this year. I’ll be back to try for the Asphalt Championship win number seven next year.”
Just behind the title fight, Welsh co-driver Michael Gilbey guided John Stone to a fine fourth place finish on Otterburn in an ex-Mikko Hirvonen Ford Fiesta WRC.
Rhidian Daniels/Tomas Whittle clinched the Asphalt Championship B10 title in style with another class victory in their JJ Aggregates-backed Citroën C1 Max, giving the west Wales crew a maximum five wins out of five score. They also enjoyed a good battle with two local Peugeot 106 drivers for the class win on the event – which they won by 19 seconds, finishing a very impressive 12th overall.