Tucker Robbed of 3rd Place!!

Competing on the Rallye Sunseeker, the 3rd and final round of the Peugeot 206 Winter Cup based in Bournemouth, Jon Tucker and Scott Cleverdon were looking for a top 3 place to prove they were quick enough to win the 2003 206 Super Cup.

The event was mixed surface and being Jon's first time in the car on tarmac, he wanted to get a feel for the car before pushing too hard. This meant a bit of time was lost to the pacesetters, leaving them in 7th out of 18 in their class after 3 tarmac stages, but this didn't worry them as they expected to gain this back once into the forests. After 4 gravel stages, another 2 tarmac stages, then a further 2 gravel stages, they were lying 3rd in class.

"We were getting a really good feeling from the car, which gave us the confidence to push hard in the faster sections. We were taking a lot of blind crests flat in 6th gear, at over 100 mph. I had really started to settle in to the constant change from tarmac to gravel and was enjoying every minute of it!"

On stage 13 (unlucky for some), they came over a crest and were braking for a tight corner when a big bump caused the whole car to leave the ground at over 80mph. The car landed with such a heavy impact that the gear linkage broke, leaving the car in neutral. They pulled off of the track and quickly tried to repair the damage. Unfortunately they could only get it into 4th gear, and with only 1.5 miles until the end of the stage they set off again, albeit very slowly. After about half a mile of trying to find other gears, they managed to select 3rd, which was much better in the tighter corners.

"I couldn't believe it when the linkage broke, although I'm not surprised as the bump sent us about 3 feet in the air. We did everything we could to get the car going again, but still lost over 2½ minutes. This is really disappointing as this was our highest place in the championship so far."

After getting the car through the stage and back to the service area, their mechanics were able to replace the broken linkage and engine mount in just 20 minutes. It was close however, and they only managed to get to the time control with 3 seconds to spare!

With the time lost, the pair had dropped down to 6th. Unfortunately the gap to 5th was too big to bridge, so they drove the final 3 tarmac stages at a slightly slower pace to preserve the car and get a finish. This gave them 56th overall of the 120 starters and 6th in class of 18 starters.

"After we lost so much time it would have been impossible to make it back in the short stages left so we just cruised through them to get to the finish. I have mixed feelings about the rally, as although we had problems with the car, we did set some very good times, and were lying 3rd out of the 18 in class. I am really looking forward to the full championship which starts next month, and although we didn't get our top 3 place here, I'm sure we can mix it with the top drivers in the Cup this year."

The 206 Super Cup follows the British Rally Championship, which is renowned for finding Britain's best up and coming drivers, and uses some of the most challenging and prestigious events in the country.

Jon and Scott would like to express their thanks to the Western Rally Centre and TJH Motorsport for all their support, both for this rally and the 206 Winter Cup championship