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Last weekend's (April 17) Station Garage Mitsubishi Granite City Rally saw local driver Stevie Brown and co-driver Andrew Roughead challenge for a front-wheel-drive podium position in their Cash for Kids liveried Ford Fiesta R2.

In their first ever outing in a left hand drive car, Brown first drove the new Fiesta R2 only hours before the rally start in the pre-event shakedown stage. "It's a big step forward from anything we've driven before, the fact that its left hand drive and the sequential gear box will take a bit of time to get used to" explained the Neil Philip Sign Writing backed driver.

On the opening stage the Five Mile Garage supported Fiesta R2 showed no signs that the steep learning curve would hold them back, completing the stage top front-wheel-drive car. A spin on stage two would however see the North East Specialist Coatings supported crew drop over 30 seconds to front runners.

Despite recent warm weather snow banks lined much of stage 3. "It was very difficult to get good grip through there" explained Stevie at the stage end.

By the mid point service halt, the Global Web backed crew were 30 seconds adrift of the front-wheel-drive lead. With three stages remaining Brown and Roughead planned to push hard over the remaining 23 miles.

Leaving the start line of stage 4 while selecting second gear, the gear stick snapped meaning Stevie and Andrew had to negotiate the entire stage jammed in second. The service team worked quickly at the stage end using the handbrake lever as a replacement to the gear stick. "We have a vertical handbrake in this car, so we were able to use it as a replacement to the gear lever. We've had to bend the gear linkage a little to make it work so hopefully it'll get us to the finish" explained Stevie.

Nursing the car through the final two stages of the day, the Abermed backed team crossed the finish line 4th front-wheel-drive car. "I'm disappointed that we weren't able to push for the win over the second half of the rally, but with the gear selection problems on stage 4 it put an end to any chance we had." Stevie continues, "Looking at the stage times we had a clean run on, I'm happy with what we've achieved considering everything was new to us."

The Station Garage Mitsubishi Granite City Rally organising team gave each of the competing crews a £10 re-bate that most of the competitors donated to Cash for Kids. "Thanks to the generosity of the competitors donating their refund to the charity we raised over £450 which is fantastic "said Stevie.

Making their debut in the new Fiesta R2 Stevie and Andrew showed real potential, but a lack of budget may stop them in their tracks. "We hired the car from DGM who did a fantastic job, but we're still searching for a title sponsor to allow us to commit to a full championship" explained Stevie.



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