UP-AND-COMING rally star Fraser Anderson continued his promising 2021 campaign with a podium finish in his class at the M-Sport Stages Rally in the Lake District.

The Shandon youngster and his co-driver Jack Bowen were on the pace throughout the two-day event, organised by Malcolm Wilson of the Ford World Rally Championship (WRC) team and featuring solely of Ford machinery, including former WRC machines as well as modern Fiesta R5s and R2Ts.

Anderson found himself competing with the more powerful Rallye 4 cars for the podium places in his class throughout the event, and sat second in class at the end of the five stages held on the first day.

He slipped to third after the long straights of the four stages on the event’s second day enabled the Rallye 4 cars’ extra power to stretch their legs ahead of Anderson’s 1.0 litre turbo R2T.

READ MORE: Fraser finishes on the podium in his first rally since Covid lockdown

Anderson was on course to be the rally’s top Scot at the end of the Saturday stages, beating some of the vastly more powerful R5s, with their 1.6-litre turbo engines and 280-300bhp, in three of the five stages, only to be left, again, trailing in the wake of the more powerful machines on Sunday’s straighter stages.

The class was won by Brendan Cumiskey and Lorcan Moore, with Eamonn Kelly and Conor Mohan second and Anderson and Bowen a comfortable third, more than two minutes ahead of David Bennett and Alistair McNeil.

Any Helensburgh and Lomond companies interested in sponsorship opportunities from backing Fraser’s efforts can contact George Anderson on georgeande@btinternet.com.

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