Tony Jardine gives latest Fiesta rally car its successful debut on snow

Rookie co-driver survives big pre-event crash

ITV presenter Tony Jardine gave the new Ford Fiesta ST150 its first successful outing on snow and ice by finishing 32nd overall in one of rallying’s great ice challenges, the Norwegian Mountain Rally. 105  competitors  from  seven  countries  gathered  in  Gol,  two  hundred  kilometres  North  West  of Oslo, to take up the Mountain Rally challenge.  Just 55 cars finished in the exacting snow and ice of Norway’s Mountainous rally tests.

Backed  by  Sportinglife.com  and  Kumho  Tyres,  Jardine  was  accompanied  by  Motorsport  News journalist  Matt  Burt  competing  in  his  first  ever  international  event  and  his  first  ever  snow  rally.   However, he nearly didn’t compete at all after a huge pre-event accident in the Sportinglife.com rally support vehicle, crashing after ice testing two days before the rally started.

Matt Burt  commented, “I had just successfully tested the Ford Fiesta ST150 at John Haugland’s famous ice school near Geilo for Motorsport News, when it was time to join the convoy back to base driving a team four-by-four support vehicle.  Having survived two hours testing flat out over the ice, I slipped off the mountain track rolling the support vehicle into the trees four metres down, damaging the car beyond repair.  Luckily nobody was in the vehicle with me as the roof was badly caved  in  on  the  passenger  side.   

Apart  from  a  few  cuts  on  my  hands  which  Tony  insisted  I immerse into the freezing snow - I was fine.  I think the freezing snow was more painful than by bruises.” Matt  escaped  injury  to  enjoy  some  spectacular  jumps  over  the  mountain  crests  which  will  be shown  on  Sky  Sports  in  February.   

The  motorsport  journalist  described  the  Fiesta’s  low  flying antics  as  ‘awesome’  but  they  were  only  able  to  complete  the  event  after  the  work  of  the  deft service  crew  of  Andy  Rogers  (from  Rushden,  Northamptonshire)  and  Den  Powers  (based  in Hinckley, Leicestershire) saved the day. Tony Jardine explained, “Matt did a brilliant job calling the complicated pace notes over the humps and bumps, it was often difficult to keep the Ford Fiesta on the ground.  Matt warned of stones buried in the snow on the inside of the corner on stage six but I hit them. 

However, we managed to limp back to the final twenty minute service with a broken front suspension.”   Within minutes of hearing the news Den and Andy had sourced the only spare fiesta suspension in the service area and stripped and fitted the new components keeping the Sportinglife.com car in the rally.

“That’s the second time Den and Andy have saved the day for us as they did exactly the same on the Roger Albert Clark Rally last November - they are absolute heroes” said Jardine. After eight stages totalling 140 kilometres the Mountain Rally Norway was won by three minutes 11 seconds by Anders Grondal in his Subaru Impreza WRC.

Following  a  drama  on  special  stage  seven  when  Mads  Ostberg’s  damaged  car  caused  a  stage blockage,  this  affected  many  teams  including  the  only  other  from  the  UK,  the  northern  Ireland crew of Shaun Gallagher and Charley McGanty whose challenge was thwarted by the incident.

Tony Jardine summed up the success of the event, “To enjoy the loan of such a prolific new rally car  as  M-Sport’s  Fiesta  has  been  a  privilege.    The  car  in  nimble,  fast  and  sure  footed  and  is already a success around Europe as drivers clamour to acquire one of the new ST150’s for the FIA  world  support  series  or  their  own  national  championships.    The  car  is  simply  a  brilliant package  and  I  would  like  to  thank  Malcolm  Wilson  of  M-Sport  and  Ford  for  allowing  Matt  and  I such a great opportunity.

People in the UK will be able to read all about it in Motorsport News and see  it  on  Sky  Sports  soon.    Rally  guru  John  Haugland  was  instrumental  in  setting  up  our  rally training and participation and has been overly generous in all his support through out the event.” The  next  event  for  the  Sportinglife.com  rally  team  will  be  the  first  round  of  the  British  National Ancro Series the Rallye Sunseeker in Bournemouth in the third week of February.