Mark Gamble wins Swift Sport Cup Championship

The inaugural Suzuki Swift Sport Cup title has been won by Mark Gamble during last weekend’s Trackrod Rally in Yorkshire.

Gamble won the event to lift the title, but early on in the one-day event, he thought that was the last thing he was going to achieve. Having lost two minutes with a puncture in the morning, he commented, “We're slowly but surely getting time back, but we've not got enough stages left to win.” However in a mammoth run through the final stage, Gamble turned a 58.8 second deficit into a 53.3 second lead to win the title. “We really went for it in that last stage,” said Gamble.

Scotsman Gordon Nichol had been ahead of Gamble with that one stage to go, but had suffered problems in the final stage. Nichol's problems had also seen Ross Forde and Nick Rowland leapfrog him to finish second and third. Forde had also lost time with clutch problems earlier in the day. After servicing, the problem returned but it was later repaired allowing him to push back up the points.

Nick Rowland had enjoyed his first run through the rapid straights of Yorkshire, and was ecstatic with another podium finish after catching Dane Niki Bjerg in Langdale and losing time in his dust.

It was a disappointed Nichol who took fourth: “We'd built up that lead, and if we had won, the title fight would have gone to the Tempest, but before the last stage the clutch went to the floor. In the stage I went for third gear and got nothing, from there we had a mile uphill and the time just slipped away.”

Still in his first year behind the wheel of a rally car, and with his last mile crash in Ulster fresh in his mind, EVO magazine journalist Henry Catchpole was delighted with his performance on the notorious fast roads. “We were three seconds a mile faster on our second runs through some stages, so I feel like I've really achieved something in Yorkshire.”

Bjerg had suffered an exploded tyre on his Swift, which had taken some of the bodywork with it, during the third stage. “We were going into a corner and it exploded, but we drove about 15km to the end of the stage; It was quite scary.” The event had led to a broken steering arm, which his crew could not change until the longer service period.

Although she was not registered for the Cup, celebrity car driver Molly Taylor – Australian S1600 champion – finished behind Bjerg. And had it not been for losing over seven minutes in the third stage due to stopping to change a puncture, it could have been a very different story. Using the event as a taster of the UK series Taylor said, “It's a fantastic atmosphere in the Cup here and I've thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated having the opportunity to come and experience rallying a Swift in the UK. I would love to come back next year, but it will all come down to budget.”

Richard Boot completed the Swift field in Yorkshire, still enjoying his first year competing in British championship level events.

The next round of the Suzuki Swift Sport Cup is the Suzuki-backed Tempest Rally, held in Aldershot on 8th November. An addition to the field will be Moto GP racer Loris Capirossi, who will switch two wheels for four to drive the Swift Sport Cup celebrity car.

Further details on the Suzuki Swift Sport rally car and series can be found at swiftsportcup.co.uk