Fisher claims third in final standings

Editorial Department • Published 17 Nov 2011 13:00 0 Comments

Alastair Fisher survived a late scare to claim third overall on the last round of the WRC Academy at Wales Rally GB, and with it third in the final championship standings.

With Craig Breen and Egon Kaur battling for the overall title, Alastair knew going in to the event that he had to finish ahead of Spaniard Yeray Lemes to leapfrog him in the championship and finish as the best of the rest. From the first stage he surged ahead of his rival and established himself in a secure second place behind a hard charging Breen. In tricky conditions he maintained his position until the last stage of Friday's action, when he dropped over three minutes.

"We were running in a comfortable second but we got stuck on the inside of a hairpin left on the final stage on Friday evening in the fog," revealed Alastair. "We were lucky as there were several spectators who pushed us out and got us back on the road."

The time loss saw him fall behind Kaur into third, but he had built enough of a cushion on Lemes to remain in pole position for third in the championship. Having got to within touching distance of the finish however, further drama was to follow.

"The steering column had broken so we had to strap it to the roll cage of the car for the last stage using a ratchet strap," he explained. "With a precise and smooth approach we got through it and thankfully we had a big enough gap to hold onto our third position. I would have liked to have pushed harder but throwing third place away would have been foolish after a hard year's work. This has been the toughest rally of the year with all the various conditions we've had."

The new-for-2011 category enabled some of the world's best young rally drivers to fight it out for a scholarship of 500,000 Euros on six rounds of the World Rally Championship in identical Ford Fiesta R2s. Despite 2011 being his first season competing in the World Rally Championship Alastair underlined his potential as a star of the future by claiming his maiden victory on Rally of France. He also led the first round of the championship in Portugal and put in a strong performance in Finland to lead by 30 seconds before an accident.

"Finishing third in the championship is a good result when you consider some of the problems we've had during the year," he said. "We ran inside the top three on all the rallies both tarmac and gravel so that is a positive. Okay, if we'd had some more luck we could have challenged for the title but we've gained lots of experience that will help us if we can secure the budget to come back to the WRC Academy in 2012."

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This article appeared in Impartial Reporter 17 Nov 11

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