FORMER World Rally Championship co-driver Andy Marchbank is celebrating his latest title in a national series.
The experienced navigator from Little Sutton directed driver Hugh Hunter to the 2008 BRTDA Goldstar Championship in their Ford Focus WRC rally winning car, originally raced by the late Colin McRae.
Andy, 46, said he was delighted with their win: “It is brilliant. We wanted to have a real crack at the championship this year after getting the new car.
“We were leading the competition up until about halfway through the season but some of the other WRC cars started to score some points.
“It all hinged on the last two rounds, anyone could have won it but at the end of the day we were victorious.”
Andy and Hugh won the closely contested gravel championship by just one point at the final event – the Cambrian Rally– near Llandudno .
“The Goldstar is a national championship over nine rounds and runs from early February to November.” Andrew said.
“On the penultimate rally in mid-Wales we took maximum points so we knew if we won the last round in Llandudno that the championship was ours.
“It’s hard enough to win a rally but to win a championship you have to be consistently good.
“You are always one bend from an accident. We had a good car and a great team.
“One of our engineers worked with M-Sport who used to prepare Ford’s rally cars in the world championships. It’s very technological.”
Asked if they would be defending their Goldstar Championship next year, Andy said: “We are looking at a number of things. We are backed by Dunlop and we are considering going to another series but we would like to defend the title.”
