Callum Black ended a hectic season of on a high with victory, for the second year running, on the Hampshire based Tempest Rally. To add to the family celebrations, Callum’s father Steve, head of family firm 586 Engineering, took a class win on the same event. He finished ninth overall in his Suzuki Swift to make it a perfect weekend for the Millers Oils team.
A spin on the first of the rally’s 10 stages saw Callum lying in fifth place in his Citroen DS3. He immediately climbed back to third place on the following stage, however, and fastest times on seven of the remaining eight stages clinched victory for him and co-driver Paul Wakely on the event for two wheel drive cars with their margin of victory over one and a half minutes.
Meanwhile, Steve and co-driver John Connor initially held second place in their class but when rival Julian Wilkes crashed his Vauxhall Nova on the fifth stage of the event they took a class lead that they held all the way to the finish.
The victory for Callum was in contrast to the start of the season when he crashed the Autosport Technology run Citroen on the Wyedean Rally in Gloucestershire, an event that he was using as a shakedown for his British Rally Championship campaign.
With the first round of the British series, Rally North Wales, cancelled due to heavy snow, Callum added an additional event, the Somerset Stages to his schedule in April and was rewarded with a class win. His Championship campaign began in May with the Pirelli RBF Rally but his visit to Cumbria was dogged with bad luck. Initially slowed by a stone jammed in a brake calliper, Callum’s rally ended on stage 7 with broken suspension after clipping a rock.
More misfortune followed on the next event, the Jim Clark Rally when the Citroen was initially delayed on a stage by a slower car, costing the team around a minute and then a brave tyre choice that looked set to pay dividends came to nought when a twenty minute delay at the start of a stage was enough to allow the tyres to cool down, compromising grip levels. Nevertheless, some strong performances in between these mishaps were enough to allow Callum and his co-driver for the championship, James Morgan from Aberdare in South Wales, to finish in eighth place.
It was back to Scotland for the next round of the Championship and a first visit for both crew members to the Scottish Rally. Despite their lack of familiarity with the stages they were once again able to record competitive stage times and claim another top 10 placing.
Rally Northern Ireland enabled Callum to put the experience gained on the Jim Clark Rally of competing on tarmac to good use. The 22 year old former BRC Challenge champion coped well with changeable weather conditions and treacherous road surfaces to secure his best result of the year, sixth place overall in a field of some of the top young rally drivers in Europe.
It was back to gravel stages for the next round of the Championship, Rally Yorkshire and once again Callum proved his consistency in the Millers Oils car, dropping out of the top 10 stages times on only one of the event’s seven high speed stages.
The final round of the year took competitors to the South of England and the Rallye Sunseeker and, while Finland’s Jukka Korhonen clinched the title, Callum secured another eighth place to finish seventh overall in the Championship. There was reward too for the Autosport Technology team with the Mantis Performance Award for the best presented car.
Reflecting on his season, Callum commented, “It has been a valuable learning year for me. I have steadily managed to improve my pace on both gravel and tarmac and I need to keep doing that. It was important this year for me to finish events and get mileage and experience under my belt and, after a couple of early setbacks, I have done that.”
Looking at the team around him, he added, “It has been my first year with James as my co-driver and we have gelled really well. It was good to team up with Paul Wakely for the Tempest as well. Autosport Technology have given me a great car to drive all year long and I can’t thank Millers Oils enough for the support that they have continued to give me.
“Now, I just to have to find the patience to wait for the 2014 season to start!"
