Ludlow based Junior rally driver and British MSA Rally Elite member James Wozencroft was named as the Rally Yorkshire’s Pirelli Star Driver finalist by the judges at the finish of the rally in Pickering this weekend.


The current British Super 1600 Rally Champion co-driven by Ludlow man Chris Ridge was playing catch up from stage 1 where he emerged at the end of the 14 mile forest test in 9th position over 90 seconds off the leader. The reason was no first or second gear but with the problem solved in service James was free to push to make the time up. A string of very fast times in the high speed Dalby stages meant the Suzuki Swift ended the rally second overall.


The 23 year old, Dealer Team Suzuki GB works driver will now go forward as the fifth selection and will be one of the six Pirelli Stars to attend the final shootout competition in December where all of the winning drivers will fight it out for a works drive in the 2008 Tesco 99 Octane MSA British Rally Championship.


James has driven the diminutive Suzuki Swift Sport car in the very competitive British Rally 2 class all season against more formidable machinery.


Pirelli Star driver panel judge and former British Rally Champion Bryan Thomas said, “It was really difficult this weekend to single out the winning Star driver, but James performances against more powerful machinery stood out as one of the drives of the weekend.”


Suzuki Team boss Ian Robinson said “I am absolutely delighted for James and his family, we believe he is a real talent for the future and undoubtedly really deserves the recognition. He has done a fantastic job for our team this season and his performance for the Junior World Championship works outfit in Germany recently was excellent and earned him a lot of praise from the Suzuki Sport World Rally Team.”