Podiums galore for GJM

The recent Bill Gwynne Rallyschool supported Coracle Stages at the Sweet Lamb Rally Complex saw Geoff Jones Motorsport enjoy yet another successful weekend of rallying, with all five cars returning to the finish without any dramas and a number of awards being received by the various drivers.

Gary Kenna and Chris Davies continued their steep learning curve in the ex-Tommi Makinen Subaru S9 World Rally Car. After losing time early on as the pair were hampered by thick fog, they were then forced to stop and change a puncture mid way through the final test, costing Gary and Chris a substantial amount of time. Despite this Gary was pleased to get more mileage under his belt.

Julian Jones and Martyn Taylor had an entertaining day out as the pair powered their Subaru Impreza B13 to yet another top ten finish, taking third in class at the end of the seven stages. Julian had a big grin on his face and admitted to really enjoying the final 12 mile test!

Nigel Seabold had Bob Stokoe sitting with him this weekend as regular co-driver Tim Barton is away on summer holidays. The pair worked well together and Nigel, feeling much more confident in the new Subaru Impreza N2010, finished sixth overall and second in Group N, his best result to date!

Wug Utting also had a new co-driver as Michael Ainsworth joined him in his Subaru Impreza N12b for this event. Wug admitted to a slow start and at first service discovered that good friend Nigel Seabold was actually ahead of him on the leaderboard! A couple of rapid times soon restored order and Wug was more than happy with third overall and first in Group N!

Young James Watkins was celebrating his first anniversary of gravel rallying and despite having the smallest car in class flew the GJM flag proudly by bringing his 1 litre Nissan Micra home second in class! This now makes it two podiums from the last two gravel rallies for the 20 year old!

Geoff Jones’ pupils also had a fantastic day out. Sara Williams and Dai Roberts had a faultless rally, the Brecon Motors backed Subaru Impreza having recently undergone a lot of checking over at Geoff’s workshops and her reward was a fantastic second overall! This result is impressive for anyone and shows that Sara is not just a quick lady driver… she is a quick driver!

Osian Pryce and Iestyn Williams were always going to struggle as their Group N Ford Fiesta ST was pitched up against the very rapid two wheel drive Escorts and Mantas. Undeterred Osian, fresh from a podium in Latvia, got on with the task at hand and returned to the finish 14th overall and third in class and very happy with his day!

The Coracle Stages rounds out a very good month for Geoff Jones Motorsport which has once again managed a 100% finish rate!

August is a fairly quiet month for rallying in the UK but Geoff will be out assisting a couple of cars over Epynt before he flies out to Africa to oversee young Kenyan talent Quentin Mitchell. Quentin is debuting the ex Nigel Seabold Subaru Impreza N14 on the Zimbabwe Challenge Rally as he aims to be selected for the African section on the worldwide Pirelli Star Driver scheme! Chris Davies will co-drive.