The pairing of Sarah Bennett-Baggs and Adrian Kermode proved a success in the Tour Britannia at the weekend when the duo ripped through the two day event to finish second overall winning twelve of the 40 stages outright,
including the Autotest in their Adrian Flux sponsored Rothmans Liveried 911 SC.
Although the duo had never driven together before the event, it was by no means a walk over. Experienced stage rally driver Kermode set a challenging pace to match the times by 2012 Tour winner Phil Hindley and regular Tour runners Spiers and Robinson all in Porsche 911’s on the first stage of day 1, by the second stage Kermode was at quickest overall. Once the Mallory race got underway – Tech9’s experienced GT racer Phil Hindley lapped the field to gain a minute lead in his super quick 911 SC. Sarah took to the wheel for the race at Mallory Park and as Adrian watched on from the banking.
At the Autotest, Adrian and Sarah studied the course before going out to put in the fastest time of the day and by the end of day 1, Adrian and Sarah were lying second overall but with a badly dragging clutch. A dash up to Chesterfield to pick up a new clutch fork and a late night car-park rebuild, the car was back out at 7.26am heading for the first stage on Day 2. With a possible podium in sight the duo were hard on it from the off on day two, not even a herd of Deer which crossing their path at Packington Hall would cause Kermode to lift! At the close of the two day event, forty stages in total, the pair had a clean sheet of no penalties and had won twelve of the stages outright and were second fastest for twenty-one of them. They finished just two and a half mins behind double Tour winner Phil Hindley in his Porsche 911 SC.
Sarah commented “I couldn’t be happier with the result, we knew Phil would be pretty impossible to beat, Adrian and I worked well together out the box, he is very cool, calm and a superb driver. His performance meant I had to up the game on the navigating side and the pressure was on to get round without getting lost! Our team did an amazing job to ensure we had the right tyres and fuel when we needed it which was often with the mini rally tank. Adrian is already talking about other possible events and making the rally car go faster in races so watch this space we may be back!”
Sarah is back out in her own Porsche 911 SC this Saturday for her first outing in HSCC’s 1970’s Roadsports meeting at Silverstone on the Grand Prix track.
