Raymond and Catford too strong for Rally NSW

Tuesday 14 May, 2019

Photos: Wishart Media

Glen Raymond and Kate Catford have made it three wins from three outings in the MTA CAMS New South Wales Rally Championship after a dominant performance in the Netier National Capital Rally.

Right from the get go, the Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9 pilots were a cut above the rest, taking out every stage win over the 15 other crews taking part in the joint CAMS Australian Rally Championship (ARC) event.

With the event split into two heats spread out across the day, the only other drivers to finish both sessions on the podium were fellow Mitsubishi pilots Tristan Kent and Kirra Penny and the duo were rewarded for their efforts with a runner-up finish.

Despite Richard Shimmon and Jim Gleeson not finishing in the top three in either of the heats, they ended the day in third place thanks to their consistent driving throughout the afternoon.

The best of the rest came in the form of the fourth placed Andrew Penny and Rhys Llewellyn driven Subaru WRX, while the returning Tom Clarke and Ryan Preston recovered from a disastrous first heat result to steer their Evo to a runner-up finish the second heat and ultimately rounded out the top five.

Following on from the result, Raymond was ecstatic with his third consecutive victory, putting it down to the car, co-driver and the crew supporting him.

“It’s pretty cool to make it three wins from three and it’s a very good start to the championship but it’s only half way point – there is still a lot to do,” Raymond said.

“There is a lot of hard work that goes into this sort of performance and it starts from the shed. I am very fortunate to have a pretty amazing co-driver in Kate Catford who was hot off a Targa Tasmania win, as well as a good team of family and friends behind me.

“I was running with a new set of Hoosier Tyres and they were fantastic to drive on, I was really happy with the speed I was getting by the end of the event.