Laser Tools Racing Rally Team 2022 Season Review
Peter Outram reports:
2022 saw the Laser Tools Racing Rally team contest in championships these being the Association of East Midlands Motor Clubs (EMAMC) and the Association of North East Midlands Motor Clubs (ANEMMC) and the goal was to try and be champions in both.
The first round at Donington Park in March wasn’t the best start to the season with engine failure on the second stage so we would need to put this one behind us and it was early days and anything can happen in the rest of the season. The second round at Cadwell Park was cold and dry and we got the result we expected finishing 39th and 7th in class so we got our first 18 points on the board. The third round was more sited to the car and my driving style and the result showed this with no issues or errors through the day saw us finish 10th overall and 2nd in class out of 72 starters and this is what we needed to keep us in the running for the championships.
The 4th round at Leconfield we had a change of navigator as Jemma was expecting and would be out for the rest of the season so Mick Munday stepped in. Due to the long stages and layout this would be another event where were at a disadvantage with our car but with some hard driving on the tighter sections we finished a respectable 23rd overall and 3rd in class which again gave us a good points score and we were now towards the top of the championship tables and we had the reliability in the car. The 5th round at York Raceway at Melbourne was going well up until I tried to carry to much speed through a chicane and hit the bales and bent the steering costing us around 30 seconds but we managed to carry on after repairs in service to finish 20th and 6th in class so not the result we expected here but a finish and points in the bag. Round 6 at Twford Woods was another where it would be suited to our car and with some really rough sections, we needed to preserve the car in places and push in others and this paid off finishing 8th overall and 1st in class giving us maximum points so this really helped putting us in the top 3 in the championship with two rounds to go.
Round 7 The Malton Forest Rally was the biggest rally of the season for us being a multi venue rally with the stages in the North Yorkshire forests linked sections on the public roads. We always enjoy these events and with some tweaks to the car for this one and a push on the early stages in the foggy conditions the stage times were respectable and we managed to score maximum points here as well and we were now joint 1st in the championship with one round left and dropped scores to come in to play the final round at Cadwell Park again and stages in the dark would be a nail-biting end to the season. The start of the last round was cold wet and very slippery in places on the fallen leaves on a wet track but we did all we can but a mistake at a split saw us drop down the order but we still managed to finish 40th and 8th in class so all was not lost.
The final scores have now been released and the Laser Tools Racing Rally Team have managed to bag a few trophies for the 2022 season these are,
EMAMC,
4th Overall Driver……………………….…………Peter Outram
4th Overall Co-Driver……………………………Mick Munday
Overall - Class 4 - 1st Driver……………….…Peter Outram
Overall - Class 4 - 1st Codriver………………Mick Munday
Highest Placed Ford………………………………Peter Outram…………The Stuart Ranby Cup
ANEMMC
2nd Overall- Driver…………………………Peter Outram
2nd Overall- Co-Driver………………….Mick Munday
As you can imagine we are more than pleased with these results and it is a testament o the hard work and long hours that go in to the car by the whole team so our thanks go out o all who have helped throughout this season, firstly to Jemma and Mick for guiding me round the stages to Tim, Anthony, Simon, Kev, Mick and Dave for looking after the car when required and to Dawn & Jodie for keeping the team fed and watered on each rally and finally massive thanks go out to Laser Tools for the continued support and we now look forward to the 2023 season. The presentation evenings for the championships are early 2023 so we will post images from each of these as we collect our trophies on behalf of all who have supported us in 2022 thank you and have a very merry Christmas and prosperous new year.
