Aileen Forrest has taken an early lead in the Protyre Motorsport UK Asphalt Rally Championship Ladies’ Challenge Drivers’ standings after an excellent rev limiter hitting performance on the East Riding Stages Rally in her Ford Fiesta R5.
Co-driven by her husband John, the double Scottish Ladies’ Rally Champion got through opening night-time stages well and by SS11 was flying – hitting the rev limiter at 109mph in her PB Engineering-run car.
A self-confessed tomboy, Aileen learned to drive on her family farm when she was very young and got her HGV Class 1 licence in her twenties.
She began rallying 2018, after watching her husband co-drive to John Wink in a Hyundai R5 – and, fed up being part of the service crew, wanted to have a go herself!
Aileen bought Michael Binnie’s Mitsubishi Evo 5 and made her Scottish Rally Championship debut in April 2018 at the Speyside Stages.
In 2020, the Inverurie driver upgraded to an ex-Bruce McCombie left-hand drive Evo 9 and in 2022 and ‘24 became Scottish Ladies’ Champion.
When her husband suggested she should give his Fiesta R5 a go, Aileen didn’t need to be asked twice and sold the Evo!
Despite having done mostly gravel rallies up until this year (with early tuition from Matt Edwards and more recently Tom Cave), and with some Jim Clark and Argyll asphalt rallies thrown, Aileen decided to register for the Protyre Asphalt Rally Championship for the first time. With immediate success.
“I was very nervous about the East Riding night stages, as I haven’t particularly enjoyed night rallying – but this time it was totally different feel with the R5,” says Aileen.
“The Evo 9 felt very big and clumsy for closed road stage rallies in the dark in and around Dunoon, so the plan for East Riding was to get to know the car.
“Saturday night was a bit tentative, but Sunday was better. The confidence went sky high by SS11 and I was very comfy behind the wheel. The highlight of the rally was reaching the limiter, 109mph in the Fiesta R5, so I was chuffed with that.
“The next Protyre Asphalt outing for me will be Jim Clark, with a test rally at Kinloss Stages up here at Lossiemouth on 21 March.”
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