Rally Success for National Journalist

Navigational blunder nearly takes crew out of Cambrian Rally

National  newspaper  sports  journalist  Jonathan  McEvoy  scored  a  second  impressive  rally finish, this time in his native North Wales in the Cambrian Rally (4 November) which finished on Llandudno sea front as he was cheered home, the local hero.

Born  in  Rhyl,  Jon  -  previously  a  regional  journalist  in  North  Wales  and  Liverpool  -  received plaudits from his former colleagues and local spectators after bravely agreeing to accept his second  rally  challenge with the Sportinglife.com team, following the Plains Rally last month. Ultimately,  Jon  has  been  set  the  task  of  co-driving  at  international  level  in  the  World  Rally Championship finale at the Wales Rally GB in December.

With backing from the Daily Mail, he  will  be  writing  about  his  quest  along  the  way,  while  taking  the  co-driving  seat  alongside rally driver and Liverpool born broadcaster Tony Jardine – who has set him the arduous task of obtaining an international navigators license in time for the WRC event. By  finishing 38th overall and third in class, out of 83 crews who made it to the finish on the national Cambrian Rally, McEvoy is now half way through his challenge – he has two events and two upgrades under his belt and two to go before qualifying as an international co-driver. But it proved to be a trying second event for McEvoy, as the team very nearly failed to finish when  they  were  close  to  being  knocked  out  by  the  clock. 

While  Jon  was  in  navigational difficulties  having  to  use  small  maps  instead  of  the  normal  detailed  road  books,  car  16’s seasoned  navigator  Vicky  Johnson  came  to  the  rescue  on  Friday  with  full  ordnance  survey maps  to  help  McEvoy  find  the  difficult  forest  stage  entrances.  The  next  time  the  team  saw Vicky she was frantically waving at the Sportinginglife.com crew to slow down - she had just survived  a  huge  crash  with  her  driver  Nik  Elsmore  and  was  to  come  to  the  rescue  again slowing their M-Sport Fiesta to avoid the wreck.

Also damaged on the same stage was Steve Perez’s  £200,000  classic  Lancia  Stratos,  once  driven  by  rally  legends  Sandro  Munari  and Markku Alen. Immediately  after  the  incident  of  Vicky  Johnson’s  crew,  the  Castrol  Fiesta  of  Jardine  and McEvoy took a wrong turn on the forest access roads ending up having to reverse painfully and  slowly  up  half  a  mile  of  tight  forest  track. 

Then,  they  had  to  dodge  support  vehicles coming at them down a single track lane as they tried to locate the sixth and longest stage of the day. McEvoy and Jardine just scraped into the time control by seconds, aware that they nearly lost a precious upgrade signature through a non finish. Jardine commented, “The Cambrian Rally system with no road books and only small colour maps to cover miles of complex welsh forests, left even experienced navigators bewildered – never  mind  a  journalist  thrown  in  at  the  deep  end  on  only  his  second  ever  rally! 

The  clock nearly knocked us out but instead we survived to take third in class. Jon was cool throughout, I’m impressed, he passed his second test!” The team also managed to survive a high speed puncture as one of their normally bullet proof Kumho  tyres  was  sliced  open  by  some  razor  sharp  rocks  at  the  end  of  special  stage  five. “Luckily it was in an open space at the end of a stage, we didn’t hit anything and we were able to change it”, said McEvoy. Team boss Olly Marshall, of ProSpeed in York, who runs the Castrol backed Ford Fiesta on behalf of the Sportinglife.com rally team, was pleased his charges finished their second rally in   style.  

Marshall   said,   “This   event   included   the   challenging   North   Wales   stages   of Penmachno and Clocaenog near Betws-y-Coed and five cars were wrecked alone in the first forest  stage.  Jon  and  Tony  kept  up  a  great  pace  all  day  dealing  with  some  very  difficult conditions  so  to  end  third  in  class  is  a  great  performance  and  the  car  was  in  great  shape unlike many others. Now we are half way to the World Championship qualification.” The rally started early on the Saturday with a blast around the perilous Great Orme cliff road high  above  the  Irish  Sea.  The  rally  then  finished  with  a  blast  back round the Orme but this time  in  the  opposite  direction. 

McEvoy  said,  “I  was  feeling  tired  after  all  the  navigational problems and continual concentration but the thought of the sea 300 feet below the sheer cliff road soon woke me up.” Driver Tony Jardine who now works for Sky Sports said, “I turned to Jon after the rally was over to congratulate him but he was too tired to enjoy the result. I reminded him that if we get to  Wales  Rally  GB  WRC  in  December  we  will  have  completed  about  one  eighth  of  the distance - a mere scratch. Clearly he needs more training but he is getting there.”