The final round of the 2019/20 Motorsport News Circuit Rally Championship would take place at Donington on 15th March. It had been an intense second half of the season with events every other weekend.

Heading into the event there were 5 crews who could theoretically take the class B victory in the championship although Chris Ruck and Steve Harris had a strong lead in the points.

We had a good start to the rally, sitting 20th overall and 2nd in class after the first stage, just a second off Chris and Steve in the class lead in spite of treacherous conditions and catching a couple of cars ahead of us which cost us a little time.

We had a small spin on stage 3 approaching the Melbourne Hairpin which cost us a bit of time but fortunately were able to recover and by lunchtime we were still holding on to 2nd in class.

In the afternoon we were going the opposite way round the circuit and using the gravelly infield section which was a lot of fun. Conditions dried up a bit and we had a good run. Chris and Steve stretched their lead further to take the class win in the rally and the championship but we were pleased to end the rally 2nd in class, over a minute ahead of 3rd, and 20th overall.

It was great to finish the season with another class podium and top 20 finish, and we were also pleased to finish 2nd in class in the championship. We were really lucky that the rally was able to take place as the Covid-19 crisis had just started in the UK and a week later the country was in lockdown!

Congratulations to Chris, Steve and all at team S16 for winning class B, it was well deserved. Thank you so much to all our supporters this season, we couldn’t have done it without you: our sponsors Cirrus Research, Morris Lubricants and Real Systems Controls; FJ-RS Engineering for running the car; and all our family and friends who came along to support us. We’re so grateful for your support.

Full season review to follow!