Manx Motorport Youth Trust supported Manx crew Matthew Bettridge and Robert Fagg will travel from the Isle of Man to Gateshead this weekend to contest the Pirelli Northumbria Rally. The event is the 3^rd round of the Ford Rally Sport Ka Championship.

Since their finish on the Willingham’s Recovery North Humberside Forest Rally the car has been in the garage undergoing preparation for the upcoming event. The loan gearbox from fellow Ka competitor Andrew Leece has been removed and returned. There own gearbox which was the cause of retirement from the 1^st round of the championship and almost prevented them from competing in Humberside, has been re-built and should help them to up there pace from the previous event.

The event will start from Gateshead’s Baltic Square, after which the crews will tackle two spectator stages laid out on derelict land proposed for the new Business Park in the area. It will then be an overnight halt before heading into Kielder Forest on Saturday morning for the rest of the stage mileage.

The crews will return to pace notes for the event after previously being on maps for the Humberside Rally. Hopefully this will enable Matthew and Robert to be move competitive as both have more experience competing on notes and will provide more certainty when pushing on the stages.

Both driver and co-driver competed last weekend on their local forest rally although not together. Matthew was driving a 1300 Nova but retired from the event with a electrical problem after stage 4. Up to this point he was leading Class A and had set fastest time on all stages. Robert faired better though after finished 7^th overall and 3^rd in class D, competing alongside visiting Irish driver Sean Warnock. The pair only met at scrutineering on the Thursday night but after the first couple of stages began up the pace and they were rewarded with a good finish.

Thanks for continued supported goes to :- Manx Motorsport Youth Trust, Bettridge Motors, Integrated Capabilities, Manx Telecom, Manx Automobile Assistance, Magic Carpets, Aon (IOM) Ltd and www.rallycodriver.co.uk

Coordinator
RF Motorsport