Mon, 02 Jan 2012 17:26:16
My 2011 Round Up
Well it’s the end of the year and looking back it’s been an eventful one and one that I will never forget. Over the course of the season there were a lot of highs and lows as my campaign took me all over Europe competing on some great rallies. I pick up my story on the final round in Wales….
We went to Wales aiming to securing third in the championship as I felt it would be a good reward for our efforts after a mixed campaign. It was a tough event, with the recce starting on the Monday. The recce schedule was tight and it was even difficult to recce in a front wheel drive car as the conditions were really slippery, I made a complete new set of pace notes for the event as I hadn’t competed on the stages in that direction before.
We tested on the Wednesday morning in what were typical Rally GB conditions. It was very foggy but the test road was representative of the rally. We did three runs and I was satisfied with our setup.
The event started in Llandudno with two runs through the tarmac Great Orme stage. It seemed to be a big hit with the locals and it was a good spectacle for the beginning of the rally but it’s no Knockalla! After the first two stages, we drove 80km to the next stage. I struggled to get into a good rhythm in the fog so I didn’t push too hard but we were still the second quickest Academy crew.
After the overnight halt, we were back in action on the Friday morning with a nice 100km road section to the first stage. We set equal quickest with Craig on the first stage which was 20km, but then we dropped a bit of time with a small spin towards the end of the next stage.
Craig had to push hard for the title and we were the best of the rest really for the remainder of the day with consistent second quickest times. There was a bit of drama during the last stage on the Friday night when we got stuck on the inside of a hairpin bend at literally 5mph. Luckily spectators pushed us out but we lost three minutes and dropped from second to third.
Saturday was a longer day in terms of stage miles, on the opening 32km Hafren stage, there was only one second between Craig and I which was hard to believe over such a long stage, Egon went fastest. The fight was really on between Craig and Egon for the Championship which added to the drama, although our delay on Friday night had left us in no-mans land. Sweet Lamb was the second stage where huge crowds lined the hill sides by the jumps and water splashes in the Sweet Lamb bowl. Next up was 28kms of Myherin, probably the best gravel stage in the UK with fast flowing corners through a wind mill farm where we went 3rd quickest.
The second loop would see Myherin as the final stage of the Championship but unfortunately the steering column had worked loose so there would be no final fling for us. We tied a ratchet strap around the roll cage to keep it secure. It was a bit like doing my driving test again – I had to feed the steering wheel through my hands for all 28kms which was interesting when we got a slide on!
We managed to get to the finish in third position, and secured third in the Championship which is what we set out to do. After our problems, it was a good result.
Overall it’s been a positive WRC debut year for me as I feel I proved my speed on both tarmac and gravel during the year, but I have highlighted areas that I need to work on. Our S2000 experiences this year also created some good exposure with a fantastic weekend in Donegal finishing 2nd overall and some great times on IRC Scotland finishing 8th despite driveshaft problems.
I’m continuing to work hard on my personal attributes as I seek to take my career to the next level and with continued hard work hopefully things will fall into place for next year and we can give it a real go. The WRC Academy is definitely the place to be, the pace is relentless every stage with great competition and media coverage.
On a final note, I’d like to thank all of my sponsors for their support throughout the season, as well as my codriver Daniel Barritt, Gerry McGarrity, Risto Laine, my family and the WRC Academy mechanics.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all my supporters!
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