YOUNG Helensburgh rally star Fraser Anderson admitted he was “devastated” to crash out of the Trackrod Rally Yorkshire at the penultimate stage last Saturday – after what the teenager admitted was “a pretty silly mistake”.

Anderson had, again, demonstrated incredible speed behind the wheel of his Ford Fiesta R2T, run by ME Rallysport and backed by Baxter and Gillespie, to open up an impressive 48.7 second lead in the British Rally Championship Academy Trophy – only to roll out with just one stage to go after clipping the inside banking at a tight hairpin.

Having never rallied in the dark before, Anderson made a brilliant start on the event’s opening Friday night stage through Dalby forest, setting a time 25.3 seconds faster than BRC Academy rival Johnnie Mulholland.

And he could have been even faster if he hadn’t overshot a few junctions and had a brief visit to a ditch, with the youngster estimating his worst mistake on the first night cost him at least 10-15 seconds.

And Anderson and his co-driver Jack Bowen were the fastest BRC Academy Trophy crew by 5.6 seconds through Cropton (SS2), 7.5 seconds faster through Gale Rigg (SS3) and 10.3 seconds faster through Staindale (SS4) to extend their category lead to 48.7 seconds at mid-day service in Filey.

Unfortunately, at a tight hairpin left corner on the next Langdale test (SS5), the car dug in and at slow speed rolled and came to a rest beached on a small bank.

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Having lost so much time getting the car free, and with a broken windscreen and side windows, they were forced to stop with one stage remaining.

“I’m absolutely devastated to make what was in all honesty a pretty silly mistake,” admitted Fraser.

“We came into the hairpin at just the right speed, but we clipped the inside banking slightly with the front left wheel which caused the car to lift.

“Once the tyres on the right gained traction I knew that we were going over and we just tipped over onto our roof.

“With how narrow the road was there was no way for us to be rolled over quickly, so I knew that it was over.

“It was one of the worst feelings I’ve ever had in my motorsport career and I was experiencing it upside down!

“I want to express my gratitude to the marshals that helped us out of the car and made sure we were both all okay – without the orange army our sport would not be possible.

“There are still some huge positives that we can take away from the event as we were leading the BRC Academy, sitting first in R2 and we were setting some competitive times against the more powerful Rally4 cars on what must be some of the most power intensive stages you can find in the UK.

“I’m just incredibly disappointed that I couldn’t seal the victory to give my loyal sponsors and the ME Rallysport team the result they deserved after all of the support they have provided me with, as well as the consistent hard work that is put in to ensure that the car is ready for each round.”

READ MORE: Run of ill luck dents Fraser's hopes in British Rally Championship Academy Trophy