Date: 26 February 2007
Five Star Marcus bags Sunseeker win!
Multiple MSA National Rally Champion Marcus Dodd is celebrating a place in the history books of motorsport this weekend. The Poole driver scored a record breaking fifth victory on Rallye Sunseeker, opening round of the MSA National Gravel Rally Championship on February 23/24.
Supported by Flitewise.com, Sunoco Fuels, Pirelli and Sunseeker Powerboats, Marcus and Hove based co-driver Andrew Bargery were clear favourites for the win in their HPM Motorsport run Hyundai Accent WRC4. Dodd has won the event four times previously and is always regarded as the man to beat on the South coast.
Starting with a traditional blast around the Winter Gardens on Friday night, it was Marcus who set fastest time on the opening stage to take a slender lead. Running on slick tyres, Marcus would struggle on the second run through the stage when the heavens opened and torrential rain lashed the sea front stage in Bournemouth where the rally was based. Marcus backed off, allowing rival Paul Bird to take a small overnight lead.
Saturday morning would see brighter conditions although the stages had lots of standing water in them. Marcus was keen to put his local knowledge to good use despite finding the first few stages very slippery. Marcus and Andrew were soon into their stride and were locked in a close fight with former champion Steve Perez. Perez suffered a series of spins in the long Mount Ararat stage and Marcus romped away from the field. With a lead of nearly a minute over the chasing pack everything was going to plan for the HPM team.
Dodd was in total control as the event neared its conclusion. One slight scare was losing the brakes before the last stage of the event. The drivers were delayed at the start of the final test and with the penultimate stage being a long one the Hyundai’s brakes were literally boiling. Great skill was required to drop so little time in the short stage, leaving Marcus and Andrew as very dominant winners of the event for a superb fifth time.
With a final winning margin of one minute and twenty three seconds, Marcus was delighted with a job well done on home soil: "I’m very pleased for the whole team as the guys have worked very hard over the winter months rebuilding the car ahead of the new season. It’s no secret that I know the event pretty well and I’m really delighted to have taken a fifth victory here. Conditions were very tricky over the two days and driving on slicks in torrential rain on the Friday evening was certainly entertaining! The gravel stages didn’t rut up too badly despite the recent bad weather so overall it was a very good day for the team and it is an excellent start to the season for us".
Marcus will now turn his attention to the demanding ‘killer’ Kielder forest stages of the Border Counties Rally in March. The 2006 event was covered in snow and ice, making it a lottery for the crews involved. Marcus and Andrew made the right tyre choices in conjunction with Pirelli and took a well judged win in very difficult conditions. A repeat of that performance in 2007 would see the HPM Motorsport team well placed to mount another serious championship challenge this year.
