RUNNER-UP WILL IS TOP BRITISH FINISHER

Friday, May 9, 2008

Will Nicholls, at Dranouter.

Sport/Rallysprint
ISLAND rally champion Will Nicholls lost out on the Monteberg International Rallysprint title by just 2.6 seconds but can console himself with being the leading British driver at the event.
Unlike stage rallies, a rallysprint is for drivers to record the fastest time over the same stage and they are given four chances to notch up the best time.
The pace was fast and furious at the head of the field in Dranouter, just south of Ypres, and stage times tumbled as the speeds and the heat increased.
Nicholls set the early pace with a 4.47.21, though local hero Paul Lietaer smashed through with a time of 4.43.58.
Lietaer went on to drop his time further to 4.37.61 and though Will responded with a 4.42.76, there was no stopping Lietaer as he cemented his victory with an astonishing 4.37.69, some ten seconds ahead of Will’s 2007 record.
Will finished third with a best time of 4.40.38.
He said: “We’ve won the event four times in the last five years so it was bound to happen. I am just pleased to be the top British contender and to have come away from Belgium with an undamaged car.”
Will and his team’s next challenge is at Abingdon in Oxfordshire for the CAR-nival Rally, a charity event over 100 miles of tarmac stages at the disused airfield alongside the A34.

RUNNER-UP WILL IS TOP BRITISH FINISHER

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