No title ‘boost’ for Jackson in Wales

After a 7 week lay off, Matthew Jackson & Sasha Heriot returned to action on the Nicky Grist Stages. Based out of the market town of Builth Wells, the event had attracted a star studded entry combining the 3 top gravel championships in the UK.

Leading the class away into the 45 miles of the fast & flowing gravel tests over the Sennybridge training area, Matthew commented:

‘We’re looking forward to the event. We haven’t sat in the car since the last event and with the soaring temperatures today, we are having to try out the Medium compound Cooper Tyre for the first time. We have our own plan for the day, the main goal as always, to reach the finish and gain those valuable championship points’.

Jackson and Heriot picked up where they left off setting the fastest time in the class through the opening stage, a shock to the crew as they felt things didn’t quite ‘click’ after the time out of the car. As the way in the ever competitive class, after a further 3 stages, the Carbon Positive Motorsport supported crew headed to the service halt with a 3.4 second class lead.

‘What a morning we have had. We are very happy to be leading at this stage. We felt we left a lot of time in the stages this morning, conserving our tyres and getting used to the new medium compound version. That said, we’re here, we’ve been at a comfortable pace and we have a great battle going with our competitors.’

Image credit: Tom Banks Photography

As the temperatures soared into the high 20’s in the afternoon, unfortunately, the same can’t be said for the pairings progression up the leaderboard. Very soon into stage 5, the car lost some of its power and felt very ‘flat’. This reflected in the stage time losing 2.5 seconds of their lead. Matthew tried to diagnose the issue in the short gap between stages to no avail. The team battled on losing a small number of seconds per stage, however, the final 9 mile Crychan test would prove too much for the ailing Fiesta and all turbo boost was lost. Around 2 minutes was lost getting through the test, dropping Matthew & Sasha to 5th in class.

‘I am absolutely gutted. A mechanical issue can never be predicted but it always hurts. I spend so much time and energy ensuring everything is correct on the car, pulling in friends and family for help, I just feel bad for everyone involved. That said, there are so many positives from this weekend. We were happy to be leading, a lot has been learnt and now we progress to the Woodpecker Rally’.

Despite the time loss, Matthew now leads the 2 wheel drive category in the Welsh Championship as well as maintaining the class lead. All is still to play for of course, but determined as always, work has begun to rectify the issues ahead of the Woodpecker Stages on 3rd September.

Matthew would love to speak to anyone interested in coming on board for the rest of the championship campaign, please reach out to matthewjacksonrallying@gmail.com .