Wozencroft Stars in Debut Drive for New Team - Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Ludlow based rallying ace James Wozencroft recovered from a brace of punctures, caused after hitting an obstacle placed in the road, to take a top 10 result on last weekend’s Carlisle based Pirelli International Rally. This marked his debut in the Revolution Wheels Rally Team.

Wozencroft belied his lack of experience in a 4 wheel drive, this being only his second ever competitive outing, and posted a string of quick times on Friday nights stages. After a cautious opening stage in the dusk, James, the 2006 British Super 1600 rally champion, put the hammer down to blast through the 5 miles of Arthurs Seat a remarkable eighth fastest. Further top ten times saw the British Rally Academy pairing end Day 1 tenth overall. Day 2 featured a further ten stages through the infamous Kielder Forest and Wozencroft and Ridge were consistently harassing those around them. Having found a rapid but comfortable pace the pair returned to second service now in ninth spot and looked all set for a career best finish on this very difficult rally. However things went wrong on Stage 11 when James encountered a large boulder that had been placed in the road. Unable to avoid the offending item he took the full impact on the left side of the car, puncturing both tyres. Thankfully the superior strength of his Revolution wheels meant he was able to limp out of the stage with minimal time loss. However the frustrated young driver was now down to eleventh position. After the car was refettled in the final service James headed back out to the forests for the final loop of three stages. A series of blistering stage times ensured that he moved ahead of team mate Rob Swann to end the opening round of the 2008 Tesco 99 Octane MSA British Rally Championship in tenth position overall, in a car that is two years older than those around him!

What a fantastic result. We came here aiming for some consistent times and to gain more experience in the car. I wasn’t happy with my driving on Friday night but got my head into gear and everything worked on Saturday. Geoff Jones gave me a brilliant car and it’s just unfortunate about those two punctures in Stage 11, otherwise we might have finished even higher! I can’t wait for the Jim Clark now.

James wants to thank all of his sponsor for the Pirelli rally, Revolution wheels, Thompson Suzuki, Geoff Jones Motorsport and Red Rock Wear.

James Get Pirelli Star Drive On Trackrod Rally - Sunday, July 01, 2007

Ludlow based Junior rally driver and British MSA Rally Elite member James Wozencroft was named as the Rally Yorkshire’s Pirelli Star Driver finalist by the judges at the finish of the rally in Pickering this weekend.


The current British Super 1600 Rally Champion co-driven by Ludlow man Chris Ridge was playing catch up from stage 1 where he emerged at the end of the 14 mile forest test in 9th position over 90 seconds off the leader. The reason was no first or second gear but with the problem solved in service James was free to push to make the time up. A string of very fast times in the high speed Dalby stages meant the Suzuki Swift ended the rally second overall.


The 23 year old, Dealer Team Suzuki GB works driver will now go forward as the fifth selection and will be one of the six Pirelli Stars to attend the final shootout competition in December where all of the winning drivers will fight it out for a works drive in the 2008 Tesco 99 Octane MSA British Rally Championship.


James has driven the diminutive Suzuki Swift Sport car in the very competitive British Rally 2 class all season against more formidable machinery.


Pirelli Star driver panel judge and former British Rally Champion Bryan Thomas said, “It was really difficult this weekend to single out the winning Star driver, but James performances against more powerful machinery stood out as one of the drives of the weekend.”


Suzuki Team boss Ian Robinson said “I am absolutely delighted for James and his family, we believe he is a real talent for the future and undoubtedly really deserves the recognition. He has done a fantastic job for our team this season and his performance for the Junior World Championship works outfit in Germany recently was excellent and earned him a lot of praise from the Suzuki Sport World Rally Team.”

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