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After coming close to winning the HERO Challenge Championship for the last two years, including the heartache of the car failing at the final hurdle when leading last year, Simon Ayris is finally the HERO Challenge Driver’s Champion 2024.
An elated Simon said; “After all the heartache, we have done it! It was cruel this time last year, as you know, the car broke. It was bitterly disappointing, but I think Matt has just been brilliant in the left-hand seat, and we’ve worked really tightly today. We started off a bit scratchy, and then after the first regularity, we both realised we needed to buckle down and get on with it, and the focus has been quite tight all day.
“We haven’t talked about winning it properly yet. To be honest, we didn’t even look at the results all day, on purpose. Even when they came through halfway through the day, we chose not to look at them and just cracked on. And we were surprised when we pulled up at the finish line, when Andy Pullan said we were second at lunch, and we both looked at each other, completely gobsmacked. So to finish second, we’re delighted and so happy to take both titles. Also credit to the Clerk of the Course James Phillips and his team for a great event over fabulous roads.”
His victorious navigator, Matt Outhwaite has now won the HERO Challenge Navigator’s Championship for a record third time. After he shook the champagne with Simon for finishing second overall by just one second, in their MGB Roadster, Matt commented; “I didn’t know that I’d broken the record with the third title. I’ve just been trying to work it all out with the results. But no, it’s fantastic.
“We just focused on each regularity as it came, and just kept it simple. The roads were a real surprise. Andy Pullan said they had managed to find some really good roads around Lincolnshire, but it has been a fantastic route, particularly those last two regularities. They were just brilliant, quite some challenge, some on private land, you know, ducking off the road onto farm tracks and a bit of gravel. A fantastic event we really, really enjoyed it today.”
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