Gritty Griffin in third at Dukeries (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Gritty Griffin in third at Dukeries

8:56am Thursday 25th June 2009 in

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NOVICE rallyman Matt Griffin maintained his challenge for the Rally First Championship after finishing third in class on the Dukeries Rally, based in Nottingham.

Griffin, from Blackburn, and co-driver Joe Cruttenden had an excellent run in their Shropshire Rallyschool VW Lupo, only just missing out on second place.

“We had a much better start to this rally and we were competitive from the very first stage,” said Griffin. “This was a big improvement compared to previous events where we have usually been playing catch up after the first run!

“We had our now customary tyre failure towards the end, but it didn’t have any effect on the result this time.

“We’d been initially classified second in class, after Dave Bennett incurred a one-minute time penalty. But Bennett later appealed and won, which demoted me down to third.”

Griffin’s next outing is back in Wales for the Quinton Rally on the July 4. Based in Llandovery, the event uses the notoriously fast Epynt military range roads.