DIRTY BUSINESS: David Barritt and Phillip Morrow. Picture:WWW.PRO-RALLY.CO.UK
DANIEL Barritt and Phillip Morrow have got their 2008 British Rally Championship campaign off to a flying start after finishing fourth on the opening round.
Barritt, from Hapton, and his Northern Ireland-based driver didn't have an easy time on the two-day Pirelli International, surviving an excursion into a ditch on the very first stage.
"We're happy with fourth place.
"It would have been great to get onto the podium in our first event with the Mitsubishi Motors UK team, but Phillip didn't want to push too hard and spoil things," explained Daniel, 27.
Starting and finishing in Carlisle, the Pirelli International Rally featured four stages on Friday evening, followed by a further 10 on Saturday, all of the rally's 105 competitive miles taking place over the demanding gravel roads in Kielder Forest.
With their team-mate and reigning British champion Guy Wilks starting as favourite, and up against drivers such as three-times British Champion Mark Higgins, his brother David plus regular PWRC competitors Juho Hanninen and Patrik Flodin - the task ahead of Barritt and Morrow would not be easy.
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Wilks was straight on the case and emerged from the first stage with a lead of 4.3 seconds.
Barritt and Morrow were fourth, having survived a big moment when their Mitsubishi momentarily dropped into a ditch.
Although they didn't lose much time, the incident knocked Morrow's confidence, especially as it was his first ever stage in the works Mitsubishi.
Checking his pace for the remainder of the Friday stages, the pair went into the overnight halt in a strong sixth place.
After a good night's sleep, Morrow showed his potential on Saturday's first test and went four seconds faster than anyone else.
With SS6 cancelled, the two Mitsubishis were again the fastest cars on the following stage and, when teams entered the first service halt of the day, Wilks had stretched his lead to 46 seconds ahead of Hanninen.
Morrow was now up to third and hunting down Mark Higgins, who was nearly a minute ahead.
Stage eight saw Morrow start to get closer to his prey as the engine in Higgins' car began to expire.
But, on the very next stage, something went adrift in the transmission of the Mitsubishi and out went fourth and fifth gears.
At the service halt, the Mitsubishi team changed the gearbox in an astonishing 18 minutes, two minutes inside the maxmium allowed time.
With Morrow now 30 seconds ahead of Flodin and 10 seconds behind Higgins, he started the last loop of three stages aiming for third place, but mindful not to push too hard and that a finish was the most important item on the agenda for both him and the team.
After a determined, but calculated, run to the finish, the results showed that Morrow and Barritt were only seven seconds behind Higgins and had consolidated their fourth place.
"Once I got over the moment on the first stage I was happy that I was able to stay on the pace and really pleased to take a fastest stage time," said Morrow.
"It was a shame about the gearbox, but the lads did an amazing job to change it so quickly.
"Overall I'm very satisfied with the way things went and pleased that it was such a successful weekend for the team."
The second round of the Tesco 99 Octane MSA British Rally Championship and the first asphalt event of the year, is the Jim Clark Rally on May 24-25.
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