SHANDON rally star Fraser Anderson followed up his recent strong showing at the M-Sport Stages event in the Lake District by taking a superb class win in the Nicky Grist Stages.

Just seven days after finishing third in class in the M-Sport event, giving several drivers in more powerful machinery a run for their money, Anderson was at it again in the British Rally Championship (BRC) Academy class at the wheel of his Matt Edwards Racing Ford Fiesta R2T, mixing times throughout the day with the more powerful Rallye 4 R2s driven by some of the best and most experienced young drivers from the UK and Ireland in the Junior BRC.

In the first major forestry rally to be held in Wales for 17 months as a result of Covid, Anderson and his co-driver Jack Bowen took the Academy class win in style, more than six minutes ahead of their nearest class challengers, Aoife Raftery and Dylan Doonan, and finished an impressive 42nd overall in the 170-strong field.

And it was a great day all round for the ME Rally team, with Anderson’s mentor, team manager Matt Edwards, taking overall victory in his Volkswagen Polo GTI R5 and taking the lead of the championship in the process.

Covid restrictions meant that Anderson – who has now finished in the top three in class for the fourth rally in a row, having only competed in six senior rallies – was unable to step on to a podium or lift a trophy, though that could change at the next event on the BRC calendar, the Grampian Forest Stages at Milton of Crathes on Saturday, August 14.

READ MORE: Shandon rally star Fraser Anderson on M-Sport Stages podium