David Meredith round two summary

Strong run ends in ditch for Meredith

Welsh farmer David Meredith endured an eventful run on last weekends Jim Clark Rally when tricky weather conditions saw the 2006 British Rally 'stars of the future' Champion slide wide into a ditch mid way through the three day rally.

David, who had won his class on the 2006 rally, was enjoying his first taste of tarmac rallying in his far more powerful Mitsubishi Evo IX and, along with Carlisle based co-driver Jemma Bellingham, was posting solid times throughout the first half of the event.

By mid morning on Saturday the pair were happy with their run so far but with the weather taking a turn for the worse the afternoon would prove to be more of a lottery. Mid way though Edrom it began to hail and with David running on dry weather tyres the grip levels disappeared immediately. The car slid wide on a 90 degree bend and clipped a ditch. As Jemma had banged her head on the roll cage the stage was stopped as a precaution whilst the BBC employee was checked over before being given the all clear.

That was quite a big fright for me! The rally had gone fairly well so far, but I was being quite cautious. The Evo is soo much quicker than my old MG and it took a while before I really began to push. The car locked up under breaking for a square right and I tried to catch it on the handbrake but we slid into a bank and swung us around into a ditch. Jemma banged her head quite hard against the roll cage and wasn't feeling too well at first, but thankfully it was nothing serious.

The pair returned under super rally rules on Sunday to gain more tarmac experience ahead of their next event, the Isle of Man International Rally.

-credit: geoff mayes