Lancashire rally driver Dan Boardman finished a fantastic 8th in class out of 24 identical Fiesta STs, just sneaking into the championship points in the first round of the brand new Fiesta Sporting Trophy championship at last weekend’s Malcolm Wilson rally (11th March 2006).

As well as being the first ever round of the Fiesta championship, this event was also the first time out for Dan in the brand new Fiesta ST rally car (which he built himself over the past 3 weeks) and the first time Dan had driven with new co-driver Scott Cleverdon, so it was going to be a steep learning curve all round!

Held in the forests around the Lake District the rally used famous stages such as Grizedale and Greystoke, scenes of epic RAC Rally battles of the past. With temperatures

hovering around freezing and a light scattering of snow on the stages, Dan had a cautious first run through to get used to the car. In the morning stages 1 to 4 a half spin and the engine cooling problem cost a bit of time. The cooling fan and a vibrating front wheel were fixed during first service and Dan went on to put in an excellent performance on stage 4 (Grizedale South), passing a fellow Fiesta on the stage and pulled into 5th in class. "Grizedale South was the first time I felt we ere able to push reasonably hard" says Dan. However a puncture on the front left at the start of stage 5 lost Dan over 2 minutes although by opting to drive the stage on the damaged tyre Dan avoided losing more time than had he stopped to change the wheel "I was absolutely gutted though after enjoying the last stage so much!" said Dan.

In second service, the damage caused by driving on the puncture was tidied up, only for Dan to suffer a second puncture on the front left at the start of Stage 6 coupled with a mystery complete electrical cut out three times during the stage. With 3 stages left and no spare tyre it was time to cross fingers, going as quickly as possible without getting any more punctures on the roughest stages of the rally whilst trying to maintain the important championship points. A quick but cautious drive paid off, the rally was completed with Dan finishing 8th in class, and 51st overall from a starting position of 92.

"Overall I am very happy but I was also very disappointed with the unpredictable punctures which lost us 2 minutes" says Dan. "Our times on the stages where we got a clean run shows how quick we can be and what’s to come for the rest of the season. We chose to set a steady pace at the start in order to learn the characteristics of the car, my confidence gradually increased and we climbed up into the points. We even managed to beat our team boss (and former 206 Cup champion) Chris Moore on two stages!".

"We had a lot against us on this event, the conditions were quite tricky as our low seeding meant we had to cope with the ruts left by the more powerful four wheel drive cars in front of us, the second time through stages 6 and 9 were particularly treacherous, loose boulders and deep ruts carving up the already rough gravel roads. Also, many of the other Fiesta teams have done a lot of testing in the forests prior to this event, but I think we showed that we are extremely competitive amongst all the up and coming young British talent despite the testing and I can’t wait to battle it out in the championship for the rest of

the season. We managed to finish in the championship points, and even receive a cheque for £75 from Ford’s World Rally Team boss Malcolm Wilson himself."

"We learnt an awful lot, but couldn’t have done any of this without the support of all the service crew and our sponsors, Innovation Motorsports www.innovationms.com  , www.rossall.co.uk  (Rossall School, Fleetwood), www.autobreakers.co.uk  (Autobreakers, Preston), Total Fitness (Preston), www.lancs-salvage.co.uk  (Lancashire Salvage, Blackburn), www.physicalpeak.co.uk  (Personal Trainer in Preston), and ATS Tyres (Preston) so I must say a massive thanks to everyone whose help made this such a successful team event!" added Dan.

Dan won the Innovation Motorsports Rally Scholarship in 2005 to secure his position as driver for the Innovation Motorsports team this season, along with the winning mechanics Stuart Farrell and Niki Savellio. The team will take part in this year’s Fiesta SportingTrophy alongside Innovation Motorsports boss Chris Moore, who is driving the team’s other Fiesta this year.

To enquire about a partnership with Dan and the Innovation Motorsports Rally Team in 2006, which offers innovative marketing and publicity opportunities including corporate rally days at Innovation Motorsports’ private forest rally test stage near Leeds, you can contact Dan on 07970 533383 or at

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 Notes to editors:

(1.) Contact Helen Ray on 07813 919333 for more details or to request an interview with Dan Boardman
(2.) There are royalty free images of Dan (car 114) available at http://www.fiestasportingtrophy.co.uk/2006season_images.asp?EventName=Malcolm%20Wilson%20Rally . Other images also available – contact Helen Ray for samples.
(3.) For full results see http://www.btrdarally.com/results/2006_2/1/class/9.asp (Class N3)
(4.) TV press please note we can provide on-event footage and driver interview footage from this event.
(5.) About the Fiesta ST rally car: "The Fiesta is not unlike your standard road car; it looks very similar in the flesh. The obvious differences are chunky tyres for the treacherous gravel roads, the roll cage and paint work. Underneath is where the main changes are, as the cars get a huge amount of punishment from the forest roads, they have to have strong under floor protection and suspension. All this coupled with a lightly tuned engine and strengthened gear box make the Fiesta ST an excellent and reliable rally car, which is one of the reasons I chose this championship" says Dan.
(6.) Preparation / car build notes: Dan received the Fiesta ST just 3 weeks ago as a bare shell with the roll cage just bolted in along with boxes of parts and a conversion kit from M-Sport to convert the road car into a Gp N rally car. Like a huge 3D puzzle Dan built the car meticulously, after work (he is a Design Engineer at TVR) in his own time and mostly on his own. The car was finally finished with just hours to spare before scrutineering on Friday 10/3/06 at Ford’s World Rally head uarters (M-SPORT) in Dovenby, Cumbria.