Jason Pritchard certainly stepped up to the mark on the opening round of the C2R2 Cup 2007, taking his first win on his maiden International rally debut on the Carlisle based Pirelli International Rally.

The event saw the start of the Tesco 99 Octane MSA British Rally Championship (BRC) with many seasoned BRC campaigners and several former British Rally Champions, all chasing glory on the opening round and among them was the 2007 MSA British Rally Academy member Pritchard, embarking on his first season with a full championship campaign to contest ahead of him.

The Builth Wells driver and his Brecon co-driver Martin Jones, started cautiously on the opening Friday evening stages in their Quick Motorsport prepared Citroen C2. Despite most of the UK baking in the unusual April sunshine, rain had dampened the opening loose surface tests that lay ahead for the all Welsh pairing and the threat of hanging dust would not cause any problems on the night stages. Another problem would slow the pair’s progress and certainly cause some concern.

“We started the Friday night stages and found the car was not behaving as expected and the handling felt extremely dangerous with the car wandering all over the road. We thought we had collected punctures on the car, which was not the case and traced the problem to a faulty tyre gauge, which we carry in the car. It was giving us a false reading for the pressures in the tyres and really cost us time over the four stages.”

The Saturday morning stages proved better with the pair starting to feel more confident with the car as the day progressed. Jason showing maturity and taking no risks to eventually bring the FCS Lasermail/North Road Garage car home in 10th place overall and take maximum points in the C2R2 series.

“We had a minor gear selection problem during the day, but apart from that the car ran really well. It has been a great rally to start the year off for us. We have enjoyed it and has got better throughout the day with our times improving as the day went on, just wish we started as the rally ended. We have learnt a lot more about the car.”

Jason and Martin will now turn their attention to asphalt rallying and will contest the RBS International Rally on the Isle of Man on 10th/11th May as part of their preparation for the next round of the championship, the Jim Clark Rally on 26th/27th May.