Jack Butel suffered an early retirement on the Paperclix Jersey Rally (14/15 October) with clutch and gearbox gremlins denying the British F4 single-seater star a top 15 finish on his home event.The circuit racer is normally seen lapping Silverstone and Brands Hatch in the highly competitive British F4 series but had decided to make a transitional switch to stage rallying to end his season. The 20-year-old had competed on the Jersey Rally previously, taking a solid 22nd overall in 2014 and was back this year to improve upon his rallying debut.Starting the event at car 58 in his two-litre Renault Clio, Butel with Emma Falle in the navigators seat was on the pace from the off, catching cars in front of him on the opening stage. Despite being held up, Jack leapt up the leaderboard to be 28th by the first service stop. Developing in confidence with every stage, the Yuasa-backed driver was making headway to be running as high as 25th by the seventh test only for his good work to be undone on the final stage of the afternoon with gear-selection problems being sited as the problem.The night stages at the close of the first day would see Butel regain his form, carving his way through the order. The classic Hetre and Rossignol stages suited Jack’s driving style, allowing the Channel Islander to jump back into 26th position at the overnight halt. The second and final day of the rally provided a real test for Butel and the remaining crews. Overnight rain had made the conditions very treacherous on the leaf-lined roads. The St Saviour resident felt at home in the changeable conditions and punched in a quick time on the first stage of the day to bring himself into 23rd before disaster struck on the first Platon stage. The gearbox and clutch gremlins – which had made an appearance the day previously had cried enough, stopping play altogether at the top of the famous Bouley Bay hillclimb course. With the Clio going no further, Butel and co-diver Falle were out of the 2016 event.“I am absolutely gutted our rally ended early.” Said a dejected Butel. “ We had a bit of a problem with our gearbox and clutch on Friday afternoon making it difficult to select certain gears. We thought we had solved it at the evening service as we went well on the night stages but on the second stage of the final day the clutch had enough and let go. I couldn’t select any gears and had to pull over and retire.“We were definitely on for a top 15 result and I came into the event wanting to improve upon last year. Although we retired, the stages we did really put a smile on our faces and our pace was encouraging. I certainly have the rallying bug and will look to try and squeeze in a few events next year around my racing season in 2017.“I would like to thank everyone who helped get us to the rally including Emma my navigator, our sponsors, supporters, service crew and all the marshals and officials who made the event happen."