BRC - Todds Leap Rally 19th/20th August
IRDC Driver Performance Award
Dulux Trade MSA British Rally Championship 2011
Amazingly, the British Rally Championship has enjoyed a long and languid summer sabbatical with a twelve week gap between rounds 4 and 5 of the series and although these two rounds were both on asphalt, we've seen a big change in this year's IRDC Driver Improvement Scheme with six new names appearing in the top ten positions.
First place on the IRDC podium is now 21 year old Alex Laffey from Market Harborough driving an independently run Ford Fiesta and co-driven by Chris Williams in the popular R2 category but currently not featuring on the main BRC or R2 category leaderboard. Alex has shown a degree of consistency however, being the only one in the current top three to have featured in the last IRDC Driver Improvement top ten listing, appearing in tenth position.
In second place is the 586 Sport Team entry of Callum Black from Brackley, the talented 20 year old student engineer running in R3 category having chosen to turn down a football academy place with Kettering United FC to concentrate on his rallying career.
Proving that the championship is a truly international series, third place in the IRDC initiative is currently held by 22 year old Finnish Driver Jussi Kumpumaki, driving the ubiquitous Ford Fiesta in R2. For the record the full-time rally driver from Uusikaupunki is listing a cornucopia of hobbies and pastimes ranging from jogging & cycling to circus stunts!
The IRDC Driver Improvement scheme is calculated after each round of the Dulux Trade British Rally championship and shows the greatest percentage improvement in driver's stage times. The results are worked out and facilitated by Tim Hobbs, international co-driver and an acknowledged authority on international rally driver seeding for many years.
Who can guess how the standings will change when the championship circus moves back to the mainland for The International Rally of Yorkshire on 23rd/24th September, round 6 of the 2011 series and based in Scarborough, providing the hard pressed championship crews with 85 stage miles of challenging gravel stages.
IRDC Driver Improvement Scheme top ten after round 5 - Todds Leap Rally
1 Alex Laffey
2 Callum Black
3 Jussi Kumpumaki
4 Osian Price
5 Desi Henri
6= Elfyn Evans
6= Martin McCormack
8 Slim Plangi
9 Kit Leigh
10 Mikko Pajunen
26th August, 2011