William Creighton won the East Riding Stages in Yorkshire on his first appearance for the Castrol MEM Rally Team – and with stable-mate Meirion Evans finishing fourth the squad also take the early lead in the BRC Teams’ title.
Co-driven by Liam Regan, the 26-year old Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy supported driver led the event from start to finish in his Toyota GR Yaris Rally2.
Having opened up a sizeable 5.1 second lead after the opening 7.87 mile test, William went on to record a total of seven fastest times over the event’s 10 extremely slippery stages to control proceedings from the front and win by a comfortable 23.8 seconds.
Meirion had never contested the East Riding Stages before and travelled to the host town of Beverley accompanied by a new co-driver Dale Furniss – and with new Pirelli tyres.
The changeable conditions could not have been trickier, with damp and greasy closed public road asphalt stages in the morning and heavy rain in the afternoon – but 29-year old Carmarthenshire driver stuck to his plan of being fast and precise throughout.
Meirion held fourth position for most of the event, eventually just missing out on a podium by 6.5 seconds after a trouble-free run.
William Creighton said: “I’m delighted to win the East Riding Stages. It’s our first rally in the car and we hadn’t done so much [in the Yaris] before the event and with such tricky conditions today, it’s just felt good. I’m really excited for what’s to come. A huge thanks to Liam [Regan] for doing a great job on the notes today and keeping me on the straight and narrow. Thanks also to all the sponsors on the car, Castrol – everybody seems to have loved the livery! And of course, thank you as always to Motorsport Ireland Academy; without them, we wouldn’t be here. I’m just really, really happy, I honestly didn’t know what to expect, how long it was going to take us to gain that confidence with the car. Fair play to Toyota and the guys who built this car because it’s some bit of kit!”
Meirion Evans said: “It’s the first time for us competing on the East Riding Stages and with a new co-driver, new tyres and with me feeling a bit under the weather all weekend, we are pleased with our result in the end. The conditions were very changeable and with so little grip in places it would have been easy to have made a mistake, but we’ve kept the car on the road and came away with a good result. Many congratulation to William [Creighton] and Liam [Regan] on the win – it’s an extremely strong start for the Castrol MEM Rally Team.”
Round 2 of the Probite British Rally Championship is the Carlisle Stages, which takes place on the gravel forest roads in the Kielder Forest complex on Saturday 12 April.
