TWENTE RALLLY HOLLAND
Kent’s Junior Rally Driver and Prospeed Motorsport Finalist Stefan Davis competed with co-driver Craig Burgess on the Twente Rally. The event was a Tarmac Rally based in Hengelo, Holland and is the only international rally of the season.
The rally was demanding for the crews as they had to run through a recce process of the stages before competing on them. Great practice for the big time though, where Stefan plans to be! The driver gets the opportunity to write is own pace notes that can be read back on the rally but corners look slightly different at 100MPH than they do at 30MPH and obviously takes a little bit of judgement.
The crew got off to an amazing start through the spectator stage in Hengelo with a massive 10,000 spectator come to see the spectacle. They caught the Fastest Times champion Tom Curtis and unfortunately did not have room to pass and indeed lost about 5 seconds in the process. They set 2nd fastest time through the stage despite the hold up and were only 2 seconds of fastest! So they would have been leading the rally.
Off to SS2 the crew were hungry. Maximum attack saw the crew airborne at about 100MPH, pushing hard they managed to set second fastest time only 1 second of the fastest despite a spin at a hairpin costing them 3 seconds. The crew knew the pace was good and had their sights on their first rally win only 3 seconds a drift from 1st and lying in 2nd place amongst the Peugeots.
Luck was not on their side however and the car started to miss-fire, then finally packing up on the motorway journey to the next stage. The crew frantically tried to carry out repairs changing every electrical component. All except the brand new dizzy purchased from BOSCH just 5 months earlier which they couldn’t carry and indeed in the end turned out to be the cause, RALLY AND SEASON OVER! “ I am absolutely gutted, as it happens we wouldn’t have won the championship because of the previous results and Si Moore getting the result he needed. But we did think we would have our first win just to let people know how far we have come, but not to be. It’s a hell of a long way to come for 15 minutes competitive driving and definitely a longer way home ” Said Stefan.
Stefan and the SDM Team would like to give massive thanks for everyone that has helped him through 2005. Including AB Motorsport for their technical support and know how, building a cracking engine. Prospeed Motorsport for their financial support and rubber contributions. Fat Wheels for giving the 205 the sexiest wheels in the championship. Maidstone signs for their high quality graphics and logs, and Angela Spencer for her exquisite designs. In-Tuition.net for their internet support and being the greatest website host in the land. Maxspeed Motorsport for their excellent test venue. Britania MOT for the use of their ramp to cringe at the damaged floor pan now and again.
The crew finished 4th out of the 21 Peugeot Scholarship field a proud place to be really but the taste of victory was so close to being theirs. The crew look forward to gaining the support that is desperately need to compete in 2006 and continue their progress to the BRC, but it’s a near impossible task when no one is giving you the breaks!
