Innovation dominate in Swansea

The Innovation Motorsports team returned home from the hot and dusty Swansea Bay Rally yesterday with mixed emotions following an action packed event on round five of the Fiesta Sporting Trophy.

Team driver Colin Greer led the event in his Go-Rallying.com backed Fiesta ST150 right from the start thanks to an incredible time on the first stage- stopping the clocks a massive twenty two seconds faster than anyone else. During the event he gradually increased his lead thanks to yet more fastest stage times and as he entered the final stage he had built up a commanding twenty eight second lead. This should have been enough to hand the Glaswegian youngster his first outright victory of the season, however mid way through the seventeen mile test disaster struck, as Colin explains:

'We'd had a fantastic day up until that point, and everything was going to plan through the stage. There was no reason to push as we knew we had such a commanding lead, however, as we exited a fast right six the front right drive shaft snapped and we were left with no option but to limp through the stage to the finish. I can't explain why it happened, but to say that I'm absolutely gutted is an understatement!'

The resulting time loss dropped him from the number one spot to a disappointing seventh, however he still picked up two valuable championship points for his efforts, and won the Castrol Hard Charging award for setting the most fastest stage times on the event.


Picking up the pieces behind him was another driver in the Innovation Motorsports team, company boss Chris Moore. A poor tyre choice had cost the Geordie fire fighter dearly on the opening loop of stages as he found himself in fourth place overall at the mid point of the rally. A switch to softer compounds in service improved the handling of the RallySchool UK and Newark Timber backed machine and he set about closing the gap to the leaders. Despite setting top three stage times by the time he entered the final stage he still needed to pull something special out of the bag if he was to come away with the win. He didn't disappoint. Unbeknown to the others Moore and his co driver Richard 'Wee Man' Edwards had already planned to attack the final seventeen mile Resolven stage as it made up around one third of the events overall mileage. As they started the stage they were in 4th place overall, thirty three seconds behind the leader. When they finished they were in 1st place overall!... Co driver Richard explains:

'Before the event started we knew the final stage was going to be a big decider in the results so we planned our tyre tactics accordingly to give us the best chance. We spent the majority of the    event preparing for the final stage, setting the car up so that it felt just right. Chris drove incredibly through there and the notes worked really well. As we crossed the finish line we knew we had set a great time. In fact we had gone half a second per mile faster than anyone else and had done enough to win the rally by four seconds!'

In fact, the pair had stormed through the stage and had set a time that would have placed them inside the top ten overall amongst the National runners through the same stage earlier in the day!

This result has elevated the pair to 2nd place overall in the Fiesta Sporting Trophy, and they now also lead the ANCRO Clubman's championship with only three rounds remaining.     

The third Innovation Fiesta was being driven by Alan Doncaster on his debut event for the team. A puncture on the final stage cost him, along with his Scottish Championship front running co driver
Martin Forrest around five minutes, but the pair had put in a good solid performance and arrived at the finish without a mark on the car.  

Summing up an eventful event for the team the Innovation boss had this to say:

'I'm really pleased to come away with the win, and to have moved into second place overall in the championship despite our two retirements gives us and the whole team a great boost! However, at the same time I'm really disappointed for Colin. He deserved to win and to have it taken away like that is really hard to take. Alan did remarkably well on his first event in four years and we're all very proud of him!

To get all three cars to the finish is testament to the hard work and effort displayed by the whole team, and to have an Innovation Motorsports car at the top of the leader board for the entire event is a great bonus. Results like that don't just come overnight. The whole team have been working very hard preparing and testing the cars and all the hard work is now starting to pay off. We have shown the other teams and drivers out there that Innovation Motorsports are now a very strong force to be reckoned with in this championship!'

The next event in the Championship is the Mewla National Rally. The mid Wales event marks a return to tarmac for the series, and is an event that Moore and Edwards are really looking forward to. Between them they have contested the event ten times!

Innovation are looking for a driver to use the third car in the team. Call 0191 5374795 for more information, or email chris@InnovationMS.com.

To learn more about Chris Moore visit http://www.ChrisRally.com More information on Innovation Motorsports can be found at http://www.InnovationMS.com

Add to: del.icio.us | Digg