Kenyan Pirelli Star Driver Peter Horsey might have been an early retirement from the recent Rally de France but his pace on only Peter’s second ever tarmac rally was very encouraging. The Mombasa born rally driver slid off the road at low speed and the resulting impact with a tree damaged his roll cage.

The Strasbourg based rally was the fifth of Peter’s six World Rally Championship rounds and would see the young Kenyan face some of the trickiest tarmac rally stages in Europe! New for 2010 the rally featured a variety of roads, varying from high speed tests similar to the military stages of the recent WRC Deutschland to some very tricky sections in the hillside forests above the host city. Featuring big cuts and with fickle weather the rally was always going to be a difficult event.

Despite limited experience of rallying on tarmac Peter set a string of respectable times during the opening leg. After three tough tests the 27 year old was a mere 3.6 seconds away from the top ten in the Production car World Rally Championship standings! And this was despite a time consuming spin earlier in the day! However, special stage four, Grand Ballon, saw everything change dramatically. Mid way through the 24 kilometre test Peter was caught out by gravel in the braking zone and slid off the road at a slow speed. The Ralliart Italy Mitsubishi Evo X came to a rest against a tree a few metres from the road and whilst both Peter and Calvin were unhurt, the safety cage had taken the brunt of the impact and was damaged. Due to the strict FIA ruling on safety this was enough to prohibit Peter returning under super rally regulations!



Peter said: "I am very disappointed to end the rally this way. The stages were very tricky and there was a lot of mud on the road. Even the top drivers have said that this was a very difficult rally but it doesn’t make it feel any better. We slid off the road under braking and hit the tree at a slow speed, but it was still a big enough impact to damage the cage and that was the end of our weekend – I am so disappointed for myself and the whole team!"

Peter still has one round of the World Rally Championship remaining. The season finale takes place in Wales in early November and sees the crews return to gravel for the Cardiff based rally. Before then Peter will join his brother Alex in a two car team on their home rally, the fifth and penultimate round of the Kenyan National Rally Championship in just two weeks time.

For more on Peter please visit www.peterhorsey.com

Photos courtesy of Geoff Mayes Media







More...



Never pay again for live sex! | Hot girls doing naughty stuff for free! | Chat for free!