Saltash driver Alan Cookson and London co-driver Julian Wilkinson claimed their first points in the Pirelli MSA Gravel Rally Championship as they finished Saturday’s (5 April) Border Counties Rally.

The crew came home 18th overall and eighth in class B13 in their SparDevon.com, Robert Wiseman Dairies, VK Vodka Kick, Riverside Property Services and Kumho Tyres-supported Subaru Impreza World Rally Car (WRC) in round two of the national championship following their retirement on the opening round, the Rallye Sunseeker, in February.

The Kielder Forest-based event was blighted by changeable weather conditions ranging from snow to sunshine, making the stages difficult to judge. A problem with the front diff hampered the pair throughout and they struggled with handling issues on the car on the first two tests in the morning.

Their day, however, did not improve in the afternoon. They couldn’t select reverse on leaving the second service and incurred a 10 second penalty for leaving late as they headed into stages five and six with the worry that they could not afford to make any mistakes as without reverse gear they risked getting stuck.

The pair picked up a puncture in stage five and lost around a minute as they drove through the test with it whilst stage seven threw all four seasons of weather at them.

But Cookson and Wilkinson, displaying the new cow-style livery on their Impreza courtesy of their Robert Wiseman Dairies sponsorship deal, battled through to make it to the finish in Jedburgh town centre and collect 10 points on the MSA Gravel Rally Championship leaderboard.

“It was always going to be a very tough rally for a car that had been completely stripped and rebuilt after the Sunseeker and it was also always going to be difficult for myself and Julian after the accident and we were not wrong there, it has to be the toughest rally we’ve ever done so to finish was a great result and we’re satisfied with our position,” Cookson said. 

“We just need to get to the bottom of why our diff problem that we suffered earlier in the year returned to blight our challenge on this event. The rally had a really high rate of attrition that saw 17 cars off in the first two stages including some top drivers that were caught out by Kielder’s notorious ditches so to finish was not that bad and we’re pleased to have collected 10 points in the championship.”

The car will now be converted into tarmac-spec over the next four weeks ahead of round three of the Pirelli MSA Gravel Rally Championship, the Douglas-based RBS International Manx Rally on Friday 9 – Saturday 10 May.