Northern Ireland’s Ulster Rally gave Irish Fiesta driver, Keith Cronin, his second MSA British Rally Championship win of the year.
Second place enabled the Swede Fredrik Ahlin to retain his championship lead, his best result on asphalt.
For most of the event Welsh driver Osian Pryce had held second place before a suspected fuel pump failure stopped the car four stages from the end. When lying fourth, FIA Celtic Rally Trophy leader Alastair Fisher retired his Fiesta R5 with engine failure, as did Matt Edwards.
Jonathan Greer (Citroen DS3 R5) was third. William Creighton (Peugeot R2) scored his second Junior category win of the season, but rival Callum Devine retired his Opel Adam R2 with alternator failure, allowing the Norwegian, Oscar Solberg, to finish second in a Fiesta R2T.
The event counted for the Celtic Rally Trophy, the Irish TROA national series as well as the British series.
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There was scandal at the Swedish championship Kolvarundan Rally when 37 year old, former WRC driver, PG Andersson, was banned from competing by the national vehicle licencing authorities as his Czech registered Skoda Fabia WRC had been owned for 10 years in Lithuania.
The Swedish Transportstyrelsen did not accept that the car had already been deregistered in Czech Republic.
Back in Sweden, Jacob Jansson became champion in the Group N above 2000cc (Otrimmat 4WD) category. He is 25 years old and was Junior Champion Group N up to 2000 cc in a Fiesta R2 last year.
This year he has won the class on three out of five events, but this time there was a very small class entry and he finished second out of only two finishers, despite running Superrally.
Final Swedish championship event is East Sweden Rally from September 8-9.
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Heard in Bostalssee (Germany):
Kris Meeke left the scene after his car was stopped on Saturday afternoon, leaving the team to explain they did not know what was the problem with the car, and reporting that his co-driver had rushed home as his wife had just presented him, in absentia, with a baby boy. Congratulations. Something happy had come out of their weekend …
The problem for Nil Solans means that the Junior World Rally Championship will not be resolved till the final round in six weeks in Spain …
How come the fastest time on the first stage of the Sunday morning went to Lappi? Was it only because other drivers were taking the stage easily to preserve tyres? He said: “We did lot of analysis last night and found things I was doing wrong. Less throttle, that's the secret. It's getting better.”
It was no coincidence as Lappi went on to score second best time on the Power Stage when all the top drivers were trying even harder.
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