Osian Pryce has lived up to his frontrunner billing by taking victory on round one of the 2014 Pirelli-backed British Rally Championship, the Pirelli Carlisle RB Foundation Rally.
Pryce, driving a Citroen DS3 R3T, beat current Pirelli Star Driver Daniel McKenna by 46 seconds over 10 gruelling stages in the Kielder Forest roads close to Carlisle.
The 21-year-old Welshman said: “I’m delighted to have achieved this: the tyres were perfect and they lasted even longer than I thought they would. We changed the tyres today but in fact there was no need: we could have used them again.”
McKenna was pleased with his result given his limited experience of driving on gravel. The Irishman was elected to a Pirelli-funded prize drive on all BRC rounds this year, with his DGM-run Citroen DS3 R3T sporting distinctive Pirelli colours.
“I’d say that I’ve driven 10 asphalt rallies for every gravel rally I’ve ever done, so I’ve learned a huge amount about both the car and the tyres over the last couple of days,” said McKenna. “We set a fastest stage time yesterday and were quite close to Osian throughout, so I’m very happy. The tyres were perfect from start to finish: I didn’t have a single puncture or anything like that.”
Both drivers used Pirelli’s K4 compound on day one of the rally on Saturday before switching to the softer K6 compound for wetter conditions on Sunday. Pirelli tyres were also on the winning car in the national class: the Ford Focus RS WRC of Peter Taylor.
The next round of the BRC takes place at the Jim Clark Rally on May 30-31. Before then, McKenna will contest the Manx National Rally next weekend, driving a Ford Escort MkII on Pirelli P7 Corsa Classic tyres.
©2014 Pirelli UK Media Office | Burton on Trent
