Home advantage for Davies in Wales

Kevin Davies is looking to return to the top of the Fiesta SportingTrophy points table this weekend, as he contests the Swansea Bay Clubmans Rally.  The fifth round of the one make series for Ford Fiesta ST150's will see the Welsh ace from Llanfihangel-ar-Arth tackle stages in the Neath valleys on the Swansea based event on July 22nd.Davies recently endured a disappointing run on the Jim Clark Rally by his own high standards.  The MSA British Rally Elite Academy driver was forcing his way back up the leaderboard after a slow start when a ball joint broke on the Fiesta.  The premature exit from the rally was Davies first ever retirement in rallying since taking up the sport in November 2004.  As a result, the KJ's Eden Tours, David Harries and Co. and MM Ford of Aberystwyth backed 21 year old was bitterly disappointed not to score points.As Davies quickly realised, things could have been a lot worse.  Together with Llandysul co-driver Emyr Jones, the pair are just three points off championship leader George Thomas, with plenty left to play for.  Swansea Bay will also suit Davies, as he has good experience of the stages being used after competing on Wales Rally GB last year.  The British round of the FIA World Rally Championship allows crews that enter to recce the stages beforehand, so Kevin has no fears of what to expect this weekend, unlike the Jim Clark where he had not competed before.Whilst the familiarity is great, Davies is quick to point out that he is not complacent.  The pace of the Fiesta SportingTrophy has been extremely hot this season already, and any number of drivers have the potential to win in Swansea.  Just 45 miles of forest stages make up the rally, with a mix of long and short stages.  Classic tests such as Resolfen and Rhondda will make all the difference.  Dust or punctures could play a major part in deciding the outcome, especially with stage lengths of up to 15 miles this weekend.The rallycarsales.net and X-Cite Motorsport Supplies supported driver knows that he needs to return to the consistency that saw him lead the series up to round four.  Davies finished on the podium three times in a row, and is looking to repeat that kind of result on July 22nd:'I'm not feeling any pressure ahead of the weekend' said Kevin.  'It is nice to have some kind of home advantage, although I live an hour away from the stages.  Having said that, I have good experience of the roads from Wales Rally GB and the Red Dragon Rally last year, so I'm going to this event with plenty of confidence.  Like everyone else, we had some issues with the soft tyres going off early in the stages on the Severn Valley Rally, but with that problem now rectified, I think we can all look forward to a very tough battle this weekend.  Emyr and I are confident that we can set a strong pace, and I'm hopeful that we can challenge for the lead as we have done already this season.  The Jim Clark was just a bit of bad luck - it had to happen to us eventually, and fortunately we were very lucky to get away without badly damaging the car.  That is now in the past and I'm only looking forwards.  We have a lot of work ahead of us to do well this weekend, but I'm really looking forward to giving it my best shot'.


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