In only his fourth ever rally, Olly Hunter won the Mintex Award on The Old Forge Garage Mewla Rally – which is presented to the registered Protyre Motorsport UK Asphalt Rally Championship driver with the best improvement on seeding on each round.
The Preston pilot was seeded at number 98 in his smart Escort Mk2 but was immediately setting excellent stage times – moving up to 70th overall after the first loop of three stages.
Co-driven by Jonathon Kennedy, he was then 19 seconds quicker when SS1 was repeated as SS4 – setting an impressive 61.14 mph average speed over the Bamfords 2 test.
Olly was then six seconds quicker the second time over the Burma stage (SS5) and 16 seconds faster over the repeat of Cileni (SS6) to move up to 54th position overall.
Despite catching cars on each of the remaining three longer stages, Olly completed the Mewla Rally in 42nd position overall – an improvement on seeding of 56 places!
After Round 1, Olly is 27th in the overall Drivers’ standings in the Protyre MSUK Asphalt Rally Championship and 7th in class B11 (Drivers’).
Jonathon is 13th in the overall Co-Drivers’ standings and 3rd in class B11 (Co-Drivers’).
Olly will receive one axle set of Mintex Brake pads to suit the caliper used on his Escort Mk2.