Paul Beaton and Euan Thorburn aim to begin British Rally return on a high
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A PODIUM finish is the target for Paul Beaton as he prepares to make his British Rally Championship return this weekend.
Beaton and driver Euan Thorburn head to Wales for the Mid Wales Stages, the opening round of the reborn BRC, and the duo want to make an impact.
The 2014 Scottish Rally Championship winners expect to be competing at the top end of the rankings this season and a promising result in Newtown would get them off to a great start.
Competition in the championship will be fierce and a step up from what the Scottish duo have faced before.
World Rally Championship driver Elfyn Evans, three-time BRC champion Keith Cronin and Max Vatanen, son of Finnish rally legend Ari, will all be aiming for podium spots too.
Also in the field is another former BRC and Scottish champion in David Bogie, who had an intense rivalry with Beaton and Thorburn during their time in the Scottish championship.
Despite stepping into the unknown when the first stage of the rally gets underway on Saturday night, Beaton, from Drakies, wants to be among the best.
“We’ve always been very competitive but until the rally starts, we don’t know what our pace is going to be like,” he said.
“But we’ve done some of the stages before so we’ve been going over old notes for them. It’s probably the most professional preparation we’ve had.
“I would really like to be on the podium – it’s a rally that rewards good drivers. But we’ve got three ex-British champions ahead of us.”
Beaton and Thorburn will go in car six in their Peugeot 208, one ahead of Vatanen whose father Beaton admits to having “hero worship” for.
The championship was on hiatus in 2015 after motorsport governing body MSA pulled the plug due to a lack of interest.
However, spearheaded by Iain Campbell, a former clerk of the course at the Snowman Rally who lives near Kiltarlity, the BRC has undergone a radical facelift.An extra incentive for the duo to perform is that their main sponsor pulled out a fortnight ago, meaning they will be self-funding the first round of the campaign.
“Luckily we’ve got a few historical sponsors that keep coming back but what they give us in relation to what we need is miles away,” he said.
“But this is the most up for a rally I have seen Euan, so hopefully we can pull something out.”
