Chesterfield’s Perez leads British History Rally Championship

The 24 year old rally driver took to the West of Scotland to take a second place and podium finish to the rally extending his points in the championship to take the lead ahead of the competitors.

The two day all tarmac Scottish adventure took place with the winning combination of having regular co-driver Ireland’s Gary McElhinney alongside him in the Amigos Tequila Beer Porsche 911SC.

The scene was set for the dynamic duo to tackle ten special stages across Dunoon and the Cowal Peninsula, seven on the Friday night and eleven all day Saturday. 75 miles of closed road special stage action.

It all started with a blast through Dunoon Town Centre which offered a crowd-pleasing opening to the rally as spectators crammed into the town to witness the cars through the tricky, three-quarter mile test.

SS1 and SS2 saw Perez finish the double town centre test in second in historic class, straight behind joint leaders Mark Higgins in his Triumph TR8 V8 and new to tarmac rallying Daniel Mennell in his Ford Escort MKII, taking a four-second lead

The first run to finish second and next one in 4th in historics.

Seb was lying 31st on the sheets overall out of the total of 112 cars that started, competing in no less than five other championships.

Perez landed the short 4.07km SS3 Tarsan Dam stage win which brought him to within two seconds of now joint leaders Mennell and Higgins.

But as the night progressed, Perez and McElhinney chipped away at Higgins who punched in a series of fastest times to head into day two out front by 35 seconds. A battle for the runner up spot had already began between Mennell and Perez, who were just two seconds apart.

Thick fog was not a welcome sight for Perez on the top over SS6 Bealach Maim 1, he drove with an air caution not wanting to put the Porsche off the road at such an early point.

By the end of the night and last stage and longest of the night a 12.65km SS7 Oyster Catcher Perez remained second.

As daylight broke on Saturday morning SS8 Fearnoch 2 a short 3.97 km blast loomed, Higgins took command with Perez putting the pressure on. Higgins just took the spot but not without some Perez moments behind to keep Higgins on this toes.

The rest of the mornings stages went to Higgins advantage but Perez wasn’t far behind. The service halt at Dunoon was a welcome sight for Perez and McElhinney as the Chesterfield based Dansport rally outfit went to work on the Porsche getting it ready for the afternoon’s five stages.

By SS15 Kilmodan 3 Perez finished one second behind Higgins who was still holding onto overall status but Perez was on it.

Perez lost out a little with a notional time on the penultimate stage SS17 Loch Fyne that cost him as much as 20 seconds.

The pair were glad to see the last stage of the event, By end of SS18 Whistlefield 2 was back into 3rd spot being demoted by the Pedley’s in their Escort RS1800 RS2, main thing Perez was still second overall, a place he had dominated since the start of the rally.

He came over the line in Dunoon second overall with a time of 1.09:05s and a deficit of just under two minutes to the rally winners Mark Higgins and Carl Williamson.

Perez and McElhinney are currently clear in the points and lead the Fuchs Lubricants British Historic Rally Championship after a strong run in the Porsche although he admitted at time he hadn’t been as close as he’d hoped to Higgins.

Afterwards Perez said: “ We’ve not been here before. It was a tricky rally and tough stages. We had a clean run throughout but still got a bit of work to do. The town centre stages on Friday evening were great” he added.