COLE LOOKS FOR ASPHALT MILEAGE IN ULSTER

Damian Cole will return to his Kwik-Fit Pirelli British Rally Championship campaign when he contests the Answercall Ulster Rally based in Armagh on the 3rd/4th September 2004. Damian will be re-united with his Subaru Impreza World Rally Car for the rally, having not used the car since a National rally back in July.

Since July, Cole has used his ex- factory/Armin Schwarz Toyota Celica ST205 on the Manx International Rally and using his Darrian T90 GTR twice over Epynt. Only managing to claim second place on the Harry Flatters Rally at the beginning of August.

Having suffered his fair share of bad luck on his recent outings, only finishing one rally since early June, the Hereford based Welshman is looking to finish on his first visit to the Northern Ireland rally with his Church Stretton co-driver Phil Clarke alongside.

"It has not been a successful two months, with a string of retirements, so our luck must start to change soon, hopefully it will be on the Ulster. We have come into the BRC as asphalt experts and have set some decent times on gravel, a surface new to me. On tarmac we haven't been able to show our true speed, so we will be going for a respectable finish on this rally. It would nice to finish in the top ten, but our main aim is just to finish. The Subaru has had a total rebuild since we last used the car. The only problem will be the lack of mileage in the car  before the rally, so the first couple of stages will be taking it steady until we are confident with the set-up etc. but I hope we can be on the pace very quickly and setting quick times."

The Answercall Ulster Rally will start at 15.00 hours on Friday with eight stages before an overnight halt. The competition resumes on Saturday with a further eleven stages before returning to Armagh for the finish. Damian/Phil are supported on the BRC campaign by O2 & Get Connected!, Welsh Automotive Forum, Matador Tyres, ACE Motorsport and Maximum Attack Promotions.