Autosportfoto

Neil Simpson celebrates a class victory in his Škoda Fabia S2000

Neil Simpson finished a brilliant 1st in class and 7th overall on Rallye Le Touquet (14-15 March), after another stunning performance in his Simpsons ŠKODA Fabia S2000.

Neil, driving in his first pace notes rally in 12 years, finished the opening stage down in 36th place, however, the 41-year old dealer principal from Clitheroe in Lancashire and his co-driver, Claire Mole, soon got back into the swing of things to quickly move up the leaderboard.

The ŠKODA Fabia's superior chassis and short gear ratio settings were ideal for the twistier parts of the stages, and while Neil didn't have the maximum speed he needed down the long straights, he was more than able to make up time in the more technical sections. After a fantastic trouble-free first day, Neil had moved up to 15th after the opening seven stages.

Using his Pirelli RX9 slick tyres to good effect in the dry conditions, Neil continued his good run on Day Two. After another seven stages, he crossed the finish line of the final stage along the Le Touquet seafront to complete the 126 miles (204kms) route in 7th place overall. Just as remarkable was his Super 2000 class victory - beating Romain Martel/Vanessa Lemoine (Peugeot 207 S2000) by 1 minute 15.7 seconds.

It was another brilliant result for Neil in only his second rally in the ex-ŠKODA Motorsport Fabia S2000, following on from scoring 1st in class and 2nd overall on his local North West Stages Rally last month.

Neil said: "I've always wanted to do Rallye Le Touquet and it didn't disappoint, it was brilliant. The ŠKODA Fabia never missed a beat, the team worked extremely well and Claire did a great job in the co-driver's seat. The Pirelli tyres were excellent and everything was just about perfect, even the weather.

"It was the first time in twelve years that I'd driven on pace notes, and I made a bit of a mess of opening stage. But once I'd given myself a good talking to, I quickly got back into the swing of things!

"The short ratio gearbox meant that our main Super 2000 rival, Romain Martel, was about 10mph faster than us down the straights. But the ŠKODA Fabia S2000 is so good on the twisty sections that we were able to make up any time we had lost. It's another great result which we are all very proud of. We've only done two rallies in the car, so we feel there is a lot more to come!"

Rallye Le Touquet - top 10 results

1. Julian Maurin/Nicolas Klinger (Ford Fiesta RS WRC)....1hr 43mins 12.7secs
2. Quentin Gilbert/Renaud Jamoul (Citroën C4 WRC)....+1min 13.3secs
3. Pierre Roche/Martine Roche (Mini Cooper WRC)....+3mins 31.6secs
4. Lionel Baud/Alexandre Chioso (Ford Fiesta RS WRC)....+6mins 59.6secs
5. Laurent Bayard/Arnaud Buysschaert (Toyota Corolla WRC)....+7mins 08.2secs
6. Jean-Charles Beaubelique/Julien Vial (Ford Fiesta R5)....+8mins 01.3secs
7. Neil Simpson/Claire Mole (ŠKODA Fabia S2000)....+9mins 04.9secs
8. Stéphane Lefebvre/Thomas Dubois (Peugeot 208 VTi R2)....+9mins 13.0secs
9. Patrick Rouillard/Cédric Mondon (Porsche 997 Cup)....+9mins 23.2secs
10. Gilles Nantet/Stevie Nollet (Porsche 997 GT2)....+9mins 34.2secs