Rain Stops Dale taking top spot
The Formula Rally championship hosted the second round at Silverstone on June 9th, using the Roger Clark Rallysprint track and inroads. Justin Dale drove his Total supported 106 GTi Super 1600 with committed pace and concentration over the twelve extremely short stages, and on every dry stage took a fastest time, but was headed by Martin Rowe on the wet.
Starting a couple of seconds down on the first stage, the heavens opened and 6th fastest through was the result of not having the right compound of tyres. This problem was to continue every time it rained. Letting another few seconds let slip on the second stage did not auger well, but by stage 4, Justin had pulled back to 4th place, a mere second off runner up spot. However, stage 5 was a turn around, and blitzing through 2.4 seconds fastest overall was just reward for a committed drive. Stage 6 too saw another fastest, while Rowe scraped a tenth back on SS7, and another 0.7 seconds on SS8.
Justin had commented at the lunch halt, "I’ve going to do it this afternoon. We’ve got the tyres now it’s dry. We’ve just changed the set up a little, made it softer than maybe we would do on a pure gravel event."
Disaster then struck the Peugeot Sport team as a tyre just came off the rim on SS9, dropping 6 seconds to the Ford’s. The identical SS10 was completed 10 seconds faster, showing what might have been. The deficit was just too much to recoup, and despite a string of fastest times for the last three stages, Justin finished the event 4.6 seconds adrift.
Mick Linford, Peugeot Sport Motorsport Manager said "It’s a crying shame for the team. He had closed in on Martin Rowe and I felt confident they would get the better of him. That puncture cost the top place."
9th July 2001
