BRAKE failure dashed rising Shandon rally star Fraser Anderson’s hopes of a successful start to his British Rally Championship career at the weekend.

The 19-year-old, driving a Ford Fiesta Rally4 in the junior category of this year’s competition, went into the Corbeau Seats Rally Tendring and Clacton in an optimistic mood.

But that soon changed as his steed proved more of a handful than he’d anticipated – and eventually led to his retirement on the 11th of the event’s 14 special stages.

“Struggling with getting a feeling for the brakes/handbrake, causing a few overshoots and having to use reverse more than I would’ve ever wanted to, left us a bit on the back foot,” Fraser said.

“We pressed on and set some respectable times despite our struggles, closing the gap more and more to the top three, which shows we are making progress on tarmac.

“But we aren’t there just yet, so we’ll keep working and learning.”

Those early woes left Fraser and his co-driver Sinclair Young at the foot of the junior standings after the short first stage on Saturday evening, and though they improved over the course of Sunday morning to climb to sixth place, their hopes of further progress were halted on the 10.51km ‘Cadman Construction 3’ stage that afternoon.

“We lost the brakes completely coming into a square right,” Fraser said, “which caused us to have to use a bale to stop the car in order to minimize the damage and avoid hitting any media/spectators

“A disappointing result for sure but there are still some positives that we can take away and bring forward to the Beatson’s Building Supplies Jim Clark Rally, so let’s keep pushing.

“A huge thank you to Taylors Motorsport Ltd for both their tremendous work in getting the car ready for the event and their invaluable on event support.

“Hopefully we can have a better run next time to reward all of the effort put in.”

The Jim Clark Rally takes place on closed roads in the Borders on May 27 and 28.