Rob Barrett wins at home

Huddesfield resident Rob Barrett has won the Trackrod ‘All Stars’ Rally after 68 stage miles in the fast and furious forests around Pickering whilst rival David Meredith came home to clinch the Silverstone Tyres Stars of the Future title with one round to go.

The fifth round of the low cost rally championship for two-wheel drive cars under 1600cc was played out under glorious blue skies as a contrast to the rain of previous days in North Yorkshire.

Sixty-eight miles spread over nine stages was the test and 20 year-old landscape gardener Barrett put worries over a misfiring engine behind him, as he set two fastest stage times to win the event by over 16 seconds from Mark Gamble’s Citroen C2.

“It was brilliant,” said Barrett. “I’m chuffed to take the win. We had a misfire coming in the service stop after stage six but it seemed to work itself out.

“It was extremely hard work in places, there was mud everywhere and it was difficult to drive. The long straights in the forests seem to go on forever.”

Co-driver Dave Hammond, 39, from Wakefield was over the moon. “Rob drove faultlessly,” he said.

Whilst Barrett won the rally, the championship has now been decided in favour of David Meredith after a spectacularly strong season. Meredith took his title with, ironically, his worse result of the year, coming home in fourth place.

“It hasn’t really sunk in yet,” said the 28 year-old from Gwynedd. “The day I’ve had today has been unbelievably difficult. We had a three minute penalty and broke a driveshaft this morning but somehow we made it home. Before now everything’s gone our way all season. It feels good to take the title.”

Coming home second in the rally was Mark Gamble, making his Stars debut in his new Citroen C2.

“I’m very happy with the result,” said the 25 year-old from Wolverhampton. “We had to change the bottom arms at service and we tried to catch Rob on the last two stages, but he must have been pushing very hard.”

The final round of the Silverstone Tyres Stars of the Future takes place on the mixed surface Tempest Stars Rally on November 11^th.

Further information on the Silverstone Tyres Stars of the Future Championship can be found at www.brcweb.co.uk 

Further information on Rally Yorkshire can be found at www.rallyyorkshire.co.uk