Spar Rally Team
Saltash IT Director Alan Cookson and co driver Julian Wilkinson from Tunbridge Wells are planning to contest the MSA British Rally Championship for the second time in 2011 after finishing just outside the top ten in 2010 once again in their Ex-Nasser Al-Attiyah Subaru N15.
Cookson and Wilkinson are at the second stage of what was a two-year plan to contest the BRC series, after securing the backing from long-term sponsors Wiseman Dairies, Kick Energy and SPAR once again, the team felt the BRC still offers the perfect platform for themselves and their sponsors due to the exposure the series gives their sponsors brands to what is a much wider audience. The pair have again also secured extra help from long-term backers Cuisine de France, Olverelectrical.com and GillettsSpar.com. The car will again be run by TEG Sport, last year’s overall driver’s championship winning team, with the help of their team backers, Speedline Wheels, Schroth and Cobra Seats to ensure the budget is in place to contest the complete series.
They will run as a satellite team for TEG Sport, in their now familiar ‘Cow Liveried’ car, nicknamed Moooooorial alongside the other TEG Sport run and Pirelli-backed Subaru N15, which will be driven by Pirelli Star Winning driver of 2010, Elfyn Evans, son of last year’s championship runner up Gwyndaf Evans.
Alan said " This is again a great opportunity for myself and Julian to compete on rallies across the UK alongside the top GPN cars and drivers currently competing in the Uk, on what looks like being the swan song for 4 Wheel Drive cars in 2011, as the BRC will become a 2 wheel drive only championship in 2012 to try and reduce ever increasing costs and make the series more accessible.
Our first event will be the K & R Stages at Brean Leisure park in Somerset on January 22nd & 23rd, where we will run alongside TEG Sport boss Stuart Newby in his Black MK11 Escort as a bit of a warm up to what will be a long season ahead . We still don't have any illusions that we can go out and match the pace of some of the top guys on the BRC, but after a year in the series in 2010 we do feel like we have learnt a lot, that mainly being that consistency is what matters and not out and out speed if we want to get into the overall top ten in 2011 championship".
Alan continued: “We are confident that we can learn from last year’s mistakes and move forward in this year, our pace noting skills have certainly benefitted from the experience we gained last year and I’m sure with TEG Sport running the car once again it will be a good, strong reliable package.
There is also lots of up to date information to be found on the official British Rally Website including
latest News Results and Videos from last year’s championship - BRC
If you work for any Spar store in the UK or regularly shop in one, why not go along and support the GillettSSpar.com / Wiseman Dairies Rally Team at an event near you, if you can't make it to any of the events then please look out for us on the cutting edge Sky Sports coverage that is always on the Monday after the rally dates found elsewhere on this site. You will also be able to keep up to date with the team’s progress by looking back here for regular team news and press releases.
