Alick Kerr - Severn Valley Rally

Scottish junior rally driver Alick Kerr got his Fiesta Sporting Trophy Campaign back on track with a very sensible and solid finish on Saturday's Severn Valley Rally.

The Lanarkshire teenager, partnered by Aberdeenshire's Drew Sturrock, piloted the Leaker Direct Rangemaster Fiesta ST to sixth spot in the ultra-competitive one-make series.

In doing so, Kerr moved right back into the thick of the action in the overall FST standings at the midpoint of the season.

The rally started with light fog covering the stages, however the haze lifted to give way to a hot and muggy day. Alick and Drew set seventh-fastest Fiesta time on the first Esgair Dafydd stage after a couple of overshoots on junctions cost them several seconds. The following test saw the crew receive a mystery one-minute time penalty that was subsequently scrubbed, elevating the young pairing from tenth to sixth place at the end of the day.

Stage three was an eighteen-mile slog through the well-known Radnor route, however front tyre issues in the second half of the stage slowed the white and orange machine down. With front and rear tyres swapped over, Kerr and Sturrock stopped the clocks sixth fastest Fiesta on the fourth run of the day, before rounding off a good day's work by being fourth-quickest ST through the last stage.

‘Although there were a few problems early on with the overshoots and the tyres going off, it was a good, solid result for us,’ reckons Bothwell-based Alick, who beat Scottish Fiesta ST rival Stevie Brown on all of the day's stages. ‘Things settled down later on in the day and I drove a lot tidier on the final stage which paid dividends. It was very hot in the car which didn't help, so I'm fairly pleased with the result.’

‘It's will be a challenge to catch the leading guys in the Fiestas after our problems at the start of the season, so the aim now has to be to get some good times and good results under our belts for the rest of the season,’ continues the foundry engineer (19).

‘A win would be good if we could manage it as well but we'll just take each rally as it comes.’

‘Considering the number of problems with overshoots and tyres, this was a very good result,’ summarises Team Principal Donald Kerr. ‘We are moving forwards and are glad to get a solid result after all the problems with the engine and gearbox at the start of the year.’

June is a rest month for the Fiesta ST competitors, however there's only a short break for Kerr and Sturrock before they head to Dumfries to resume battle in the Scottish Rally Championship on the RSAC Scottish Rally on Saturday, 28th June 2008. After that, it's back down to Wales for the Swansea Bay Rally on Saturday, 19th July 2008. With reliability back in the car and pace coming on stream, two good results in two different countries are what the Leaker Direct Rangemaster team is targeting over the next seven weeks.

Further information on the team can be found at http://www.alickkerr.com

Web: Leaker Direct Ltd – http://www.leakerdirect.co.uk