You cannot miss Adrian ‘Ady’ Drury and Cat Lund in their bright duck yellow Peugeot 106 GTi, as they push the little pocket rocket to the limit on the Protyre Motorsport UK Asphalt Rally Championship.
Last year they finished 7th in the highly competitive B10 class, after just one points-scoring finish. This year has been much better, with three seconds and a third making them a serious title contender. They are currently second in B10, heading into this Sunday’s Ford Parts Cheviot Stages Rally.
Adrian’s rallying programme is sponsored by his own business, A J Drury Deliveries. He runs a small fleet of 3.5 ton flat bed trucks providing a national delivery service, mostly for the engineering industry. Drury Deliveries is based in Stanley, Derbyshire, in an ex-bus garage that is also run as a vehicle repair service to cars and light commercials. It’s called Black Cat Garage, because the bus company was called Felix Buses and they had a black cat as their logo, which is still familiar to locals today.
“We’ve had an up and down season in this year’s Protyre Motorsport UK Asphalt Rally Championship, but it’s safe to say it’s been much better than 2018,” said Adrian. “Last year was a struggle with reliability issues until we got to Otterburn and the Cheviot Stages; it was cold, wet and miserable weather, but it all came together and we had a good day on the ranges.
“Our 2019 season started well with a finish on Epynt which saw us get a set of Mintex brake pads for best improvement on seeding, then took a downturn on the Manx when we broke a throttle cable at the start of day two and went OTL trying to fix it. We had an exciting time at Rally van Wervik. Cat knows the event well, first competing on the rally when she won the Flanders Rally Challenge in 2010 with her fiance Andy Rowe in their Evo 2.”
“We borrowed Andy’s ‘fast’ notes for Wervik, which may have been a mistake,” says Cat. “We got a bit carried away with an excursion into a ditch, losing some bits of the car while we were pulled out by De Koorde.”
De Koorde are the Belgian spectators who deliberately position themselves at known danger spots with a large tow rope in order to assist stricken competitors – de koorde means ‘the rope’. They are well known in Belgium and even have their own Facebook page! The Belgian fans returned both bumpers to Adrian in service, just in time for him to knock the rear bumper off again in an attempt to demolish a concrete fence on the next loop of stages. The poor Peugeot came back from Wervik looking a bit second hand, but after some hard work it was all fixed ready for the next round in Northern Ireland.
“We were really looking forward to the Down Rally, with a time schedule organised to the minute as we had to fly back on Saturday night so Cat could compete on a rally with Andy on Sunday,” continues Adrian. “Unfortunately the driveshaft gremlins that plagued us in 2018 reappeared and we broke a shaft on the very first stage. Luckily we were not far away from a pub, so we went and sampled some traditional beverages with our service crew!
“We are very grateful for the help of our band of friends who service on events for us. On the spanners at Otterburn will be Mark Coulton, a big lad with a big heart who would do anything for the team, even going on a boat to Ireland when he hates boats. We also have Paul James Taroni joining us again, who was with us in Belgium and kept us in the rally after we’d knocked the corners off the car.
“I am hoping I have got to the bottom of recent reliability issues ahead of the Cheviot and I’m building in confidence in the notes Cat is calling. Whatever the outcome this weekend, we always try to have a laugh and a good time and enjoy it while we can.”
At the start of every event Cat will ask Adrian, “Are you ready?” and the answer is always the same – “Born ready!” So they say “bring it on Otterburn” – whatever happens they will have a great time this Sunday in the little 106.
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