The British Rally Championship heads to Scotland with Pirelli aiming to consolidate its outright standings lead.
A ‘home’ victory for Pirelli driver Fredrik Ahlin on the Pirelli Carlisle Rally was enough for the Swedish ace to snatch the championship advantage after he wisely played his joker, which doubles the points scored on one round of the series.
Ahlin’s fantastic form so far in 2016 in his Ford Fiesta R5 means he will again be one of the favourites for the win on the Scottish Rally, a one-day gravel event based in Dumfries.
Scottish drivers will also be expected to feature strongly on home ground and the country’s top drivers rely on Pirelli tyres, led by Ahlin’s team-mate at the CA1 Sport team, David Bogie. Driving a Skoda Fabia R5, Bogie hails from Dumfries and has won the Scottish Rally four times since 2010. Euan Thorburn, this year campaigning a Peugeot 208 T16, is also a past winner, in 2014.
The leading competitors from across the Irish Sea are also supported by Pirelli: Josh Moffett (Ford), Desi Henry (Skoda) and Jonny Greer (Citroen DS3 R5).
The event is also part of the Scottish Rally Championship. Pirelli is official tyre partner for the series and supplies many of the top drivers, including the reigning champion Jock Armstrong (Subaru Impreza) and the current points leader Garry Pearson (Ford).
Dating back to 1932, the Scottish Rally can count such iconic names as Roger Clark, Hannu Mikkola, Stig Blomqvist, Ari Vatanen and home-grown World Rally Champion Colin McRae among its former winners.
The rally consists of eight stages adding up to almost exactly 100 competitive kilometres over fast forest tracks, all taking place on Saturday. Pirelli’s BRC crews will have the full range of Scorpion gravel rally tyres available, including the K6 – a softer compound suited to cooler conditions – and the harder K4, ideal for sweeping away loose gravel.
Matthew Corby, Pirelli Motorsport Operations Manager, said: “Victory on the Pirelli Carlisle Rally means we head to Scotland in confident mood for the next round of the BRC. Fredrik Ahlin is on a great run, David Bogie knows the stages very well and many of our other drivers have shown fine form recently.”
