The 2010 Dulux Trade MSA British Rally Championship’s Swift Sport Cup is looking like a one horse race as Finnish hotshot Mikko Pajunen and co-driver Janne Perälä have dominated the series since the start of the season.

Their first year in the BRC was always going to a be a learning one, but with experience on the gravel roads of Finland the opening Bulldog Rally North Wales perfectly suited the pair, even catching Manxman David Harrison and reigning BRC Challenge co-driver John Connor on one of the longer Welsh stages.

Any chance of a fight on the Pirelli was ended when Harrison was caught out on a tricky left hander, rolling the little Suzuki down a step bank. Although there wasn’t substantial damage, it put paid to his event and severely dented an already tight budget.

Pajunen went on to finish just outside the top ten overall, impressing the Pirelli Star Driver judges and winning him the Pirelli “yellow jersey”, his nomination to the end of season shootout for 2011 BRC funding.

The Jim Clark Rally saw a return for Richard Boot, having missed a year since contesting the inaugural Swift Sport Cup in 2008. He was joined by Connor in the co-driver’s seat, but the pair retired with a broken driveshaft before getting to grips with the stages.

Another newcomer to the Swift Sport Cup and indeed the Dulux Trade MSA British Rally Championship was youngster Tom Clark. He and Aggie Foster might be new to the series, but despite the youngest competitor in the BRC only turning seventeen a week before the rally, they have competed in Latvia for some time now, where drivers can compete from fourteen years old. A mature drive for one so young netted second behind Pajunen, the Fin quickly coming to terms with asphalt.

Both crews will have much to learn on the Isle of Man and although local lad Harrison is likely to be in a different car, he will no doubt be keeping an eye on the crews in the Swift Sport Cup.