One point from glory

BARRY Morris did all he could to annex the MSN Rally Championship title for the second time, but he fell one point short in the end.

The Galbally driver went into Sunday’s concluding round of the series knowing only a victory for him would do, but that he would need his main rival, Neil Roskell to finish outside the top three also.

Unfortunately for Morris, he and co-driver Tom Hitchings achieved their main target, to win the Alan Healy Memorial Stages Rally outright, only for Roskell to hold onto third place to take the title by the narrowest of margins.

Although a little disappointed not to regain the crown he won in 2020, Morris was delighted with how his season ended with second place in the championship and the class D title in his two-wheel-drive Darrian.

“The plan was to go and give it an all or nothing job because we had nothing to lose – there was more pressure on him than us,” he explained.

“It was nice to finish with an overall win but one point – I didn’t think it was that close!

“But second, and to have a two-wheel-drive up there with the R5s I was happy.”

Throughout Sunday, Morris and Hutchings led from start to finish, while Roskell and co-driver Andrew Roughead lost possession of second place on stage six of nine to John Griffiths and Nigel Wetton and were left nervously looking over their shoulders at the hard charging Josh Payton and Jamie Vaughan.

In the end, though, Roskell and Roughead were able to hold on to third place and claim the championship, although the Blackpool man, much like Morris, didn’t realise there would be so little between them in the end.

“He was shocked himself, he didn’t realise it was so close. He admitted that he was still trying and he wanted to finish on a win,” Morris said.
While he admits that had he been offered second overall and the class D title before the season started he would have gladly taken those spoils, Morris also admits that he was pleased for Roskell to win the overall crown after what has been a difficult year for the Lancashire man, who lost his son Nath in 2021.
“He deserved it, he didn’t put a foot wrong all year and he had personal issues during the year with his son passing away,” Morris added.

“So for him to commit to the championship, it’s nice for him to go on and win it and it was emotional yesterday [Sunday] because the son was into motorsport and when it happened they didn’t know if they were going to start it or continue with it.

“So for them to win, I was happy for them. He’s a deserved winner.”