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JRM Rally Team preview

Event: Rallye Sunseeker

JRM gets set for British Rally Championship return

2010 British Teams' Champions JRM return to the Dulux Trade MSA British Rally Championship this weekend with a two-car assault on the first round, the Poole and Bournemouth-based Rallye Sunseeker. The team will field a pair of Group N Mitsubishi Evolution Xs: one driven by 19-year old Tom Cave from Wales and the other by 26-year old Daniel Barry from Ireland.

For Cave, this will be his second outing in a JRM Mitsubishi, his first being on the Wyedean Rally earlier this month when, although suffering from a stomach upset, finished second in Group N and seventh overall. Together with his co-driver Craig Parry, this impressive drive provided him with invaluable experience in the car and therefore Cave aims to hit the ground running for the BRC season-opener.

However, for Barry, this will be his first event in the JRM Evo, although he has vast experience of driving Mitsubishis, having won the Evolution Challenge in 2009 and campaigned his Evo IX on five IRC events in the past year. Added to this, the rapid Irishman has a record of good performances on the Dorset event and hopes that his knowledge of the stages, coupled with his Mitsubishi pedigree, will stand him in good stead this weekend. He will be co-driven on this occasion by highly-experienced fellow Irishman Rory Kennedy .

Both drivers will test their JRM cars on Thursday, when they take part in the pre-event shake-down. However, with the event a round of the UK's premier rally championship and with a strong R4 (production 4WD class) entry, both drivers know that to achieve a good result will not be an easy task, even though - if past performances are anything to go by - the JRM Mitsubishis are likely to feature at the head of the field.

Having secured the British Teams' Championship in 2010, JRM is delighted to be retuning to the BRC this year. However, because of changes in the regulations, the company is unable to defend its title, as only competitors with two-wheel-drive cars will now be eligible to score points towards the Teams' title.

The Rallye Sunseeker kicks off on Friday evening, when crews line-up for a high-profile ceremonial start on Poole Quay. The competition gets underway on Saturday morning, with the route of 60 competitive miles split into 11 timed special stages in Ringwood and Wareham forests.

Quotes

Tom Cave "I'm raring to go. It's a bit of a trip into the unknown again, like the Wyedean Rally, but this time I have one event in the JRM car under my belt. The plan for the weekend has to be the same as before: flat out from the word go. The stages are relatively short - the longest only 10 miles - so if you have a spin or a puncture it would be very difficult to pull any time back. It will be a pretty frantic day - short stages and short service halts - but I'm definitely looking forward to it."

Daniel Barry "Although I will be competing in a JRM Evolution X for the first time, I've had some good runs on the Rallye Sunseeker in the past, so I hope that my knowledge of the stages will more than compensate as I get used to the car. I really hope that we can pull off a good result this weekend, as it would set us up nicely for the start of the season and this could then lead into a full British Rally Championship campaign with JRM."

John Barnes (Team Manager) "Although we can't battle for Teams' points this year, I think that last year we more than proved what our cars can do. Therefore, if we can provide the opportunity for Tom ad Daniel to battle for Drivers' Championship points, then that's exactly what we aim to do. I'm delighted that we are starting the British Rally Championship again and hope that if both our drivers achieve good results, that they go on to contest the whole season as a two-car team."

-source: jrm group

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