Saturday was the Neil Howard Stages at Oulton Park, the first round of the 2019/20 Motorsport News Circuit Rally Championship. It was great to finally kick off our new season, with JIG in its new livery courtesy of our main sponsor Cirrus Research.

The Neil Howard is always a tricky event, with a variety of challenges including the slippery rally circuit, the 'Darcy Dip' water splash, the gravel section through the trees and stages in the dark.

I found the first few stages challenging and we made an error in tyre choice for stage two - going onto intermediate tyres which we struggled with in the tricky conditions. We lost a bit of time on those first three stages but then found our groove in the afternoon and managed to pick up the pace and start to make up time to the cars in front.

We finished the event fourth in class, just three seconds off third and nine seconds off second in class so we were pleased with the pace we managed in the afternoon. There's just two weeks to go until the next round at Cadwell Park so we're hoping we can get on the pace straight away there.

Many thanks to our sponsors Cirrus Research, Morris Lubricants, Real Systems Controls and Demon Tweeks. Also thanks to FJ-RS Engineering who are running JIG for us on the championship this year.