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On Saturday 25th March Richard Tuthill got himself back behind the wheel of a Porsche 911 in a competitive capacity. This has been after a nine year hiatus since rallying in the R-GT back in Germany in 2014.
He had spent some time out with our Below Zero Ice Driving team across the winter season practising and enjoying the space available that you can only find on a frozen lake in northern Sweden. After also driving the R-GT across a 20 mile stage while we ran our inaugural rally event, Rally With No Name, he firmly cemented the concept of being back in the cabin and fighting for a podium finish against drivers who are younger and have been rallying more consistently across the last decade.
“It’s been a long time since my last historic rally, The Severn Trent Stages. That was my last competition and that was back in 2011. Even then I had had a break from rallying.
It will be the same feeling this time, and I am excited to be behind the wheel of one of our Porsches again, especially in the Welsh forests.
I’m curious to know how quickly the top boys are going these days.”
Richard Tuthill
After a successful test day only a few days before Rally North Wales, both Richard and the 911 were in good form, with Richard remarking that he was “genuinely nervous and excited” to get stuck in.
The event started in Welshpool and consisted of 95 competitors across 22 categories, with clients Bon Grimes and Richard Aczel also competing in their Tuthill Porsche prepared 911s.
By the half way mark Richard was elated to share that he had secured two fastest stage times on Stages 2 and 4, but admitted that Stage 3 was a bit messy due to him being “rusty”.
“I am enjoying it immensely and it’s reassuring to know a 911 can still compete here in this historic rally”
Richard Tuthill, at the half way point of the event.
By the end of the day however, Richard had managed four fastest stage times out of the seven stages across the day, and also a second fastest stage time.
Claiming 2nd place in his category, Richard was only two seconds off the winners by the end of the day with Richard Aczel taking 3rd. A time Richard will be looking to improve on next time.
Bon Grimes and Dale Furniss came 2nd in their category too, only 1.2 seconds off the car in front.
It’s lucky that Richard remarked “The idea of doing some more rallying is very appealing”, because he’ll be competing again at Plains Rally on the 20th May 2023.
