Motoring writer Alyson Marlow has joined forces with top Canadian rally driver Pat Richard for an assault on one of the country’s toughest rally championships.

The pair have just completed their first event together as part of the Peugeot 206 Super Cup – a championship which closely follows the Pirelli British Rally Championship.

Alyson, who is deputy business and motoring editor at the Southern Daily Echo in Southampton, is no stranger to the rallying scene.

She’s been competing on rallies for the last 10 years, first with husband Innes and more recently with stepson Dan in a Mitsubishi Evo IV. She also contested the 11,000 km World Cup Rally to the Sahara and back last year, finishing an impressive second overall for Peugeot.

Joining forces with the Canadian has been a little “last minute” for the Hampshire-based co-driver and she met Pat only two weeks before their first outing.

Pat arrived in the UK a few weeks before the first rounds and he’s here to learn about British rallying and particularly using pace notes to describe the corners. Although he is an experienced driver in Canada he decided to search for an experienced co-driver – and Alyson fitted the bill.

She said: “Thankfully we got on from the moment we met and as he is based in Yorkshire we spent a couple of frantic weeks on the phone and emailing each other about the first event.

“But I am having to get used to some strange language differences – however I can now quickly get the lug wrench out of the trunk!”

The car they are using is a brand new 206 and the pair are competing against 29 identical cars on the UK’s premier one make series.

Their first event was based in the man-made Kielder forest complex on the Scottish borders and provided a challenging debut for the pair.

In Canada Pat drives for the Subaru team and is accustomed to four wheel drive, turbocharged cars but in the UK he is having to learn front wheel drive and having the driver’s seat on the right hand side.

“It’s all very new for Pat and he’s keen to take things fairly easy until he has really learnt the car,” said Alyson. “His plan this year is to learn from the fastest drives in this series rather than try to win the series.”

The first event was split into two separate rallies and although fuel pump failure forced the pair into retirement on the first they were setting top five times on the forest stages.

But there was better luck the following day with a new fuel pump fitted as the crew continued to set fast times in the Gateshead Rally, eventually finishing an impressive sixth overall.

“It’s just good to get back to the ramp,” said Alyson. “I don’t think we could have expected to have finished any higher in our first event – the pace at the front is frantic.”

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