final qualifying Rally to make World Championship Grade
Castrol / Evening Standard team have to finish exacting GON Cambrian to obtain final licence upgrade signature Evening Standard journalist David Smith will nervously take his seat in the ProSpeed Motorsport prepared Castrol / Evening Standard Ford Fiesta ST150 next to driver Tony Jardine at the Cambrian Rally (1 November) knowing this is his last chance to qualify for a World Championship entry to Wales Rally GB (4-7 December).
This will represent journalist and amateur rally navigator Smith’s final attempt to make the grade in order for him to compete on the world stage against teams from across the world on Britain’s round of the World Championship, Wales Rally GB.
The pressure is now on the sports journalist from Dunstable and the Castrol / Evening Standard team to finish the rally. Smith’s hard work and enthusiasm have so far contributed to back-to-back class wins at the Trackrod and Bulldog Rally sitting alongside Sky Sports Tony Jardine, but he needs to continue with his new found form and a finish is far from guaranteed. The Cambrian Rally is a tough event over rough forest tracks with slippery long forest stages, peppered with rocks that are bound to punish the car and certainly test the latest tyres from Kumho.
Co-driver Smith will be following in the footsteps of some current rally greats such as Finnish drivers Mikko Hirvonen, who is now a works Ford WRC driver and currently lying second behind Sebastian Loeb in the WRC, and Jari-Matti Latvala. Hirvonen and Latvala finished first and second in class respectively at the Cambrian Rally back in 2002 which is when they were both just starting out, and trying to make their way up to WRC.
Managing Director of ProSpeed Motorsport, Olly Marshall, said in the build up to the event, “David did a fantastic job last time out, he really found a new level within himself. It was a great atmosphere in the team camp during and after the event. We all put a lot of work into it, which we will be doing again for the Cambrian. Although David has probably got used to his winning ways, he now needs to concentrate on the job in hand. We essentially need a finish, so that he can get the signature and move on to Wales Rally GB.”
The ProSpeed team will have the services of top McLaren Development Engineer, Andy Beale, who will be on hand to help prepare the car for the event, and also be an essential part of the team’s emergency service crew to keep the car fettled over the rough surfaces. Beale, who has been present throughout Smith’s campaign to enter the Wales Rally GB, said,
“We have had two terrific events with the results to show for it. This rally is going to be the toughest rally yet and one of the most important with Wales Rally GB literally a month away. We will do all we can to keep them going but on these surfaces at high speed anything can happen.”
When asked how he was feeling about the Cambrian Rally, David Smith said, “It is amazing how this sport can grip you. I have still only competed on two rallies, but already I have upped my target from merely finishing to actually fighting for trophies. On our last event in the Castrol / Evening Standard Ford Fiesta, the Bulldog Rally in the Welsh forests, the working relationship between Tony and myself finally began to click. For the first time I felt I was actually contributing to the competitive effort, rather than being a mere passenger enjoying a high-speed thrill, and beating some quality opposition to win our class resulted in a real feeling of satisfaction. The danger, of course, is that I assume I've now mastered the dark art of co-driving and everything will be plain sailing on the Cambrian Rally, back in Wales, this weekend. If I needed a warning that rallying can bite, it came on the Bulldog with the sight of cars crewed by far more experienced co-drivers than me lying wrecked or damaged beside the track. I know that any mistake I make on the Cambrian is likely to be punished in the biggest way, and that is serving to increase the pressure on me not to let Tony and the hard-working lads of the ProSpeed team down. This is beginning to become a serious business."
Along with ProSpeed, the media duo of Jardine and Smith will be fully supported by Alpinestars, who will once again provide them with stylish but protective fire proof suits whilst Arai will further the journalists protection, supplying the latest crash helmets. This will be the first time that Smith has been to the Cambrian Rally but Jardine’s experience of the rally from previous years will certainly help the team across the 9 stages containing 54 miles of rough terrain in North Wales.
When Jardine was asked how he thinks his co-driver smith was getting on, and how he would be for the Cambrian he said, “David’s performance on his second ever rally was amazing. He now has a huge task in trying to replicate his form. Its like the golfer who thinks he has sorted out his swing and cant find the rhythm again, he has to make sure he is on the ball from the beginning, as I will be going flat out and the risks of making mistakes are high.”
Castrol / Evening Standard team have to finish exacting GON Cambrian to obtain final licence upgrade signature Evening Standard journalist David Smith will nervously take his seat in the ProSpeed Motorsport prepared Castrol / Evening Standard Ford Fiesta ST150 next to driver Tony Jardine at the Cambrian Rally (1 November) knowing this is his last chance to qualify for a World Championship entry to Wales Rally GB (4-7 December).
This will represent journalist and amateur rally navigator Smith’s final attempt to make the grade in order for him to compete on the world stage against teams from across the world on Britain’s round of the World Championship, Wales Rally GB. The pressure is now on the sports journalist from Dunstable and the Castrol / Evening Standard team to finish the rally. Smith’s hard work and enthusiasm have so far contributed to back-to-back class wins at the Trackrod and Bulldog Rally sitting alongside Sky Sports Tony Jardine, but he needs to continue with his new found form and a finish is far from guaranteed.
The Cambrian Rally is a tough event over rough forest tracks with slippery long forest stages, peppered with rocks that are bound to punish the car and certainly test the latest tyres from Kumho. Co-driver Smith will be following in the footsteps of some current rally greats such as Finnish drivers Mikko Hirvonen, who is now a works Ford WRC driver and currently lying second behind Sebastian Loeb in the WRC, and Jari-Matti Latvala.
