NEIL SIMPSON admitted he was ‘delighted and disappointed’ after making his long-awaited debut in the Skoda Fabia R5.

Simpson was forced to retire the car from the Neil Howard Stages at Oulton Park with a holed radiator – but not before he had blitzed the opposition.

MORE TOP STORIES:

“I was delighted with the car but so disappointed to go out while leading,” admitted Neil, who runs the Simpson Skoda dealerships in Colne and Preston.

“The car was brilliant in the wet, although we did have an almighty spin on stage two, doing a great impersonation of Torvill and Dean before just missing the barrier.”

The Clitheroe-based driver was quickest out of the blocks on the opening stage, beating Kevin Procter’s Subaru Impreza WRC by five seconds.

Although Procter took the lead on stage two, Simpson and co-driver Elliott Edmondson were back in front with just two stages to go.

But the penultimate test saw the R5 burst its radiator after a stone flicked up when the pair caught a slower car in the stage.

“I wanted a top-five finish, and although I didn’t get that, we were very happy with the car’s performance today. I’m still rusty after being out of a rally car for over 12 months, but we collected lots of data from the five stages we did, so there’s plenty more to come from both of us.

“The R5 is amazing and very different from the S2000 car I used in 2014. It’s much more tractable and balanced, and delivers power right the way through the rev range.

“The event was the perfect platform for us to launch the R5 and to promote the dealership.We use motorsport to promote the brand and the dealership, and it works. We sold 22 cars last year purely on customer awareness of our rallying exploits, and that’s something we are looking to grow with the R5. It got an amazing reaction form the spectators.”