Furniss continues fine form in Co-drivers seat 

 

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Dale Furniss co-driving for Mad Mick on their way to class victory on the Wyedean - Photo courtesy of A&A Photography

 

Dale Furniss continued his 2011 season in fine from on the Powys Lanes Road Rally when he navigated fellow club member Kevin Davies to an excellent 1st O/a.

     Davies and Furniss were top seeds on event after the rally returned from a 25 year sabbatical from the rallying calendar. A 120 mile route on maps 147,148 and 161 lay ahead of the competitors and some torrential rain on the night made for some very difficult and slippy conditions. Davies and Furniss were one of several competitors that got caught out on some of the first farm tracks of the night, sliding off and losing almost a minute to the top crews and saw them lying 3rd O/a at the petrol halt behind Gethin Morgan and rally leader Will Arrowsmith. However, a fantastic performance in the second half of the rally saw them claw back over a minute defficite to the rally leaders into an narrow winning margin of just twenty seconds after 120miles of navigational rallying.

     Debbie Furniss was also competing on the JJ Brown Memorial Rally the same weekend up in North Wales. Furniss, navigating for Merfyn Hughes finished a lowly 33rd O/a when they hit trouble with their vehicle cutting out. Cutting route on the event to prevent them going OTL saw them pick up 8 fails and drop them way down the order.

     The Wyedean rally held in Chepstow, hosted the first round of the ever popular BTRDA rally series. Dale Furniss was again occupying the co-drivers seat, this time with "Mad Mick" Jones of Welshpool in his Honda powered Escort Mk2. The opening few stages of the day saw the pairing struggle with gearbox problems but were still occupying 2nd in the B11 class heading into the midday service behind class leader Joe Price. Price was however to have problems of his own on SS5 and saw Jones/Furniss regain the class lead which they held onto throughout the remaining stages and finish as class winners and 29thO/a in a capacity entry of 180 cars with several strong four wheel drive crews.

     Damien Thomas and Anthony Litchfield also took to the stages at the Wyedean rally and had an eventful weekend. Alternator problems on the Friday night at scrutineering was the beginning of their eventful weekend. The crew experienced further problems on the first stage when a failed rear wheel bearing made for some troublesome times. With the car struggling barely able to stay in a straight line due to the rear wheel bearing, substantial time was lost and a frustrating day in the car knowing they weren't able to go flat out. They did however still manage to finish 3rd in their class and bring the car home in 98th O/a out of a 134 finishers.