Suzuki News

Dealer Team Suzuki’s Swift Sport Group N2 car in the hands of Lorna Smith and co-driver Joanne Oakey, secured maximum Irish Tarmac Championship points at last week’s Donegal International Rally, elevating themselves to the top of the Championship points table.

Their rally however was not without incident. After completing the first six stages on the Friday and consolidating their position in the Group N2 class in amongst the competing Honda Civics, they were looking forward to pushing on and climbing higher up the order, but that was all about to change on the first stage on the Saturday morning in persistent rain.

Running on intermediate tyres, they were well in to the 19.81km stage when they went over a blind crest on a bend, only to find that the previous car had spun on landing. Despite trying to avoid the spun car, Lorna hit the stranded Nissan Micra, causing relatively minor damage. Having completed the stage and SS8 it was back to the service park where the technical crew repaired the car within the 40 minute service.

Typically, such an incident did not phase either crew member and they pushed on again, only to enter a right hand bend on SS9 too fast. Lorna took the decision to take to a small escape lane on the left and in doing so went up on the grass and managed to park the car on a small stone wall. No damage resulted, but it took 10 minutes to get it back on the road!.

The remainder of the Saturday stages were completed with only a slight brush with a straw bale damaging the left hand front wing, so they now had a matching pair.

Dawn on Sunday saw dry roads and sunshine, so the decision was taken to run on slick tyres, firstly to take account of the conditions, and secondly to evaluate their performance for the next round in the Isle of Man should it be dry.

The Sunday stages were to prove the most technical and difficult, but the crew ran to Team orders, which was to bring the car home and consolidate 4th in class and gain maximum points in the Irish Tarmac Championship.

Team mates James Wozencroft and Chris Ridge suffered from the start with the car jumping out of 3rd gear, a constant problem for James, who on most stages had to drive one handed to keep the car in gear until the transmission finally expired on SS10 Knockalla.
Dealer Team Suzuki’s next rally will be the demanding Isle of Man International which is a round of both the British Rally Championship and the Irish Tarmac Championship between July 19 and 21.

Dale Wyatt has been appointed General Manager in charge of Dealer Development at Suzuki GB PLC in Milton Keynes.

Wyatt, 41, has been in the Motor Industry since 1987, initially with Partco where he was promoted to the position of Regional Sales Manager.

He joined Volkswagen Group UK in 1994, first as an Area Manager responsible for 12 Dealerships, subsequently becoming Development Ventures Manager in 1998 and Brand Manager and a Regional Director responsible for 32 VW retailers in January, 2002.

In 2004 he was appointed Head of Business and Franchise Director Designate at Oxford Audi, leaving to join Saab GB in December, 2005.

At Suzuki GB he will lead a dealer development team dedicated to expanding the presence of the Suzuki franchise throughout the UK in key market and open point areas reporting to David Seward, Director – Sales and Marketing.

Commenting on the challenge of his new appointment Wyatt says that the Suzuki franchise is becoming one of the most valuable in the market place with considerable scope for expansion into the future.

“With its new product ranges, high quality value for money products and unrivalled expertise in compact car and 4×4 design Suzuki is now a must have franchise for many dealers and one which will grow dramatically in the next decade,” he says, “and I am delighted now to be able to play a part in the future of the Company in the UK.”

Dale Wyatt is married, lives in Northamptonshire and has two children. He was born in the West Country and educated in Somerset.