Today, we have a guest post by Robert Fagg. Robert is a rally racer co-driver or navigator and has emerged as a fierce competitor as he’s raced across Great Britain and as far afield as China. You can learn more about Robert on his website or subscribe to the blog for further guest posts.

In my last post, I told you about my trek over to Ireland to contest the Ulster Challenge Rally, the penultimate round of the Kick Energy Fiesta SportTrophy and how we narrowly escaped near disaster after serious contact with a tree. We knew we’d have to give our all in the last round of The British Rally Championship Challenge if we were to have any chance of taking the title.

Unfortunately, the final round of the Trackrod Rally Yorkshire brought neither the result nor the prize – free entries into the 2010 British Rally Championship – that we had hoped for.

Despite the event being held on the same day as my driver Matt Edwards’ birthday, we had no luck whatsoever. With no chance to test before returning to a loose surface following 2 rounds on tarmac, we knew it would take a little time to get up to speed.

False alarm

We started at a comfortable pace, but although we caught up to a rival car from past events and posted a reasonable time, it could have been better. Things got worse for us on the next stage, when mid-way through the longest and toughest test, our engine cut out and the fire extinguisher deployed. With a distinct lack of flames, we traced the fault to the emergency switch outside the car and fixed it. Despite dropping a lot of time to the competition, we pushed on.

Turning out of place

The bad luck was still with us in the final stage as we punctured a front tire when braking for a tight corner from flat in 5th gear. Because of this, we struggled to turn the car in the tight corners for the remainder of the stage. That put paid to any chance we had of winning the 2009 championship. Too much time had been lost.

We ended the event in a very disappointing 8th place, only good enough to secure an overall 4th in the BRC Challenge Championship. Still, the finish was good enough for Matt to achieve the runner-up spot in the Fiesta challenge while I ended the season in 4th. Not bad considering I missed the opening round of the series.

Our plans for 2010 are already under discussion but have taken a knock with us not claiming those valuable free entries.

Scotland calling

I quickly put that disappointment behind me as I traveled to Scotland to contest the Tunnocks Tour of Mull. It is one of the last remaining ‘old school’ events and it’s becoming an annual trip competing alongside John Cope in his Subaru Impreza WRC.

John and I enjoyed a good run on the event, lying in the top 5 after the opening leg on Friday night before a strong run Saturday saw us climb to 3rd.

The final leg on Saturday night start with the longest stage of the event, 22 miles, and usually sets the scene for the rest of the leg. Unfortunately for us we dropped time to our rivals as we battled for 3rd, but such was our lead we did enough to move up to 2nd overall following a problem for the event leader.

Darkness falls

It remained tight between the 3 crews battling for the runner-up spot right down to the last stage with just 8 seconds separating us. With lots of work being carried out on the last section and making it very daunting, it really was going to be a make or break stage, especially in pitch black at 1:30am!

In the end, it just wasn’t meant to be, as we lost out not only on 2nd but on 3rd too. Following the problems we had last year, 4th place was a great result and now that the car is working really well, it gives a good platform for 2010.

Your support drove me

It remains for me to say thank you to NETELLER and all of you for your support. I could not have done it without you. Please keep an eye out for some more in-car footage in the coming weeks.

I hope to have a further announcement regarding my next event in the very near future.