Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy driver William Creighton continues to lead the Probite British Rally Championship, with a hard-fought second-place finish at the Carlisle Stages on Saturday [12 April], narrowly missing out on victory after a thrilling day-long battle in the Kielder Forest.
Fresh from his maiden BRC win at the East Riding Stages Rally in February, Creighton and co-driver Liam Regan proved their pace once again, taking their Castrol-backed Melvyn Evans Motorsport Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 to the limit on the world-famous fast and unforgiving gravel stages.
Despite this being their first gravel rally in the car, the pair were right in the mix from the very first stage, challenging for the lead throughout the day.
Just five stages and 50 miles were in store in a compact day of action, but each stage provided some of the most challenging gravel roads in the country. Blind crests and ultra-fast segments required the ultimate commitment from the BRC contenders, with little margin for error.
As the number one seed, Creighton would be opening the road and had to cope with the top-surface ‘marble-like’ gravel as he swept the road for the following contenders. Despite this, he was just over one second away from the lead on the short opening test and by the following Kershope stage, Creighton had moved out front.
An ultra-close battle with fellow Junior WRC champion Romet Jurgenson followed, and the pair were just 0.2s apart heading into the penultimate test. However, a minor overshoot at a chicane on the Chirdonhead stage cost precious seconds and ultimately saw the Moira driver slip to second place overall.
While the slight error denied Creighton a back-to-back BRC win, the result remains a positive outcome for his championship aspirations. With two strong podium finishes from two rounds, Creighton continues to lead the overall BRC standings, a crucial advantage as the season begins to take shape.
“It was a tough fight all day and we were really pushing to stay in the lead battle,” said Creighton.
“The stages were typically challenging for Kielder, fast, flowing, and unforgiving, but we were feeling good in the car. Whilst we had the benefit of no dust to follow running first on the road, that brought its own challenges and the very dry surface was particularly loose, meaning we were doing quite a bit of cleaning. That small mistake at the chicane was unfortunate and I’ll be analysing this to see how I can improve moving forward. But that just goes to show how close the pace is in the BRC at the moment, on another day, that small overshoot may not have mattered so much but the margins are so tight.
“Second place is still a great result and, more importantly, we’ve maintained the lead in the championship.”
Creighton and the Castrol MEM Rally Team will now look to carry this momentum forward into the remainder of the season.
“Thanks as always to the Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy, the Melvyn Evans Motorsport team and all our supporters.”
