Scottish rally driver Garry Pearson extended his British Rally Championship podium run to three on last weekend’s Rali Ceredigion (September 2/3).
Based in the coastal town of Aberystwyth, Rali Ceredigion was one of the most demanding events of the season with 14 challenging Tarmac stages totalling just under 100 miles of driving.
Pearson, co-driven by Daniel Barritt, headed to Wales off the back of his best-ever BRC result to-date having scored second on the Ulster Rally two weeks earlier.
And the Duns driver kept up his momentum against the very best Tarmac rally drivers in the country, once again displaying incredible maturity to make it through every stage unscathed in his Melvyn Evans Motorsport Volkswagen Polo GTI R5.
Experimenting with car set-up and different tyre compounds as well as developing his pacenotes, the rally proved to be another brilliant learning experience for Pearson who was rewarded with second place in the British championship and a top-five finish overall.
“It was a really great rally, Dan and I both really enjoyed ourselves and are delighted to get second in the BRC,” Pearson said.
“We made good progress with our pacenotes but I know I’ve got a lot of work to do on my Tarmac driving and pacenote work to be faster all-round.
“Fair play to James [Williams], we knew we were unlikely to beat him on his home stages so we stuck to our plan of learning and banking more good points for our championship campaign, which is exactly what we managed to achieve.
“We are looking quite good for second place in the championship now, so I can’t wait to get back on my preferred gravel surface for the final two rounds and hopefully have a bit more of a push.
“Huge thanks to all my sponsors for their continued great support. This season has been really positive so far so I’m really excited to keep this momentum going.”
Pearson also wanted to pay tribute to David Barlow, affectionately known as DIGB, who passed away after a battle with illness on the Friday before the event.
“I think everybody in Scottish rallying knew DIGB,” Pearson said. “He was an amazing character who did so much for young drivers in our sport.
“This result was for him. My thoughts are with DIGB’s family and many friends at this difficult time.”
Pearson’s next event is Trackrod Rally Yorkshire in just over two weeks’ time (September 22/23).
