on Tempest Rally
McEvoy just one signature away from international navigators license
Sky Sports broadcaster Tony Jardine and the Daily Mail’s sports journalist Jonathan McEvoy finished first in class – their second class win in three rallies - in their Sportinglife.com backed Ford Fiesta on the Tempest Rally (11 November), covering 15 special stages and 75 stage miles across army land in Aldershot.
The event proved to be a challenge for the media duo as the unique mix of stages took the team through forest, tarmac and military roads– a real army obstacle course with short, sharp stages and hazards along the way. Driver Jardine commented,
“It’s such a difficult event because the stages are so short which makes it hard to get in to a rhythm. We were off the pace in the morning and neither of us were happy with our performance until later on in the afternoon. What makes it even harder is that it’s not just pure forest but a combination of surfaces – on stage 12 we came out of the trees, over a crest, through a gate and straight on to the slippery tarmac of a military road where we had to watch out for all the obstacles - gate posts, kerbs, lampposts and tank traps!”
Coming out of an afternoon stage, one of the reinforced Kumho tyres of the Castrol Fiesta suffered a puncture as the team caught the edge of a tank trap, which meant Jardine and McEvoy had to perform a quick tyre change in a field, managing it in less than four minutes before heading back to service. An extra challenge for McEvoy came with each check point, as the timings between stages were so tight that crews were in arrears all day, with McEvoy and other navigators having to use skills of negotiation to plead with organisers against penalties for lateness.
Jardine said, “Jon was like Socrates with his abacus, we were chasing our tails all day and he did well to get us through with no time penalties, especially as the time control after special stage 12 was wrongly marked in the road book and he still managed to swiftly guide us where we needed to be.” The final drama of the day for the team was on the last forest stint when a branch struck the drivers door window and a shower of broken glass fell on Jardine and McEvoy. Jon, however, was unaware of what was happening and in the style of a seasoned navigator did not miss a beat with the pace notes. “I didn’t realise what was happening, I just thought some gravel had come in through the window and then at the end of the stage I looked down to see glass had shattered all over us. Even though we couldn’t see where we were going at that point - as we had no lightpod on the car - we were still keeping up a good pace and the British army would have been proud of the way we tackled their obstacle course!”, said McEvoy.
Olly Marshall, of ProSpeed in York, who runs the M-Sport Fiesta on behalf of the Sportinglife.com team, was impressed by his media crew. Marshall said, “They were fantastically neat around the hairpin in Rushmoor Arena taking a good line where a lot of people were getting it wrong. It’s a credit to them that they finished with more than a two minute lead over their direct rivals in the class.” Completing the last stage and passing through the final time control, marshals were waiting to cheer the media duo home, congratulating Jon on his winning efforts by handing him his license already signed by course officials. McEvoy – a rookie co-driver who has been set the challenge of competing in Britain’s only round of the World Rally Championship – is one step closer to the WRC event, now only needing one more signature on his navigators license to reach international status.
Finishing 14th overall – out of a 70 plus entry list – at the Home of the British Army means the Sportinglife.com team are well on their way to the Wales Rally GB in just three weeks time, with one final training event in the North Yorkshire forests next weekend on the Kall Kwik Rally which starts and finishes in Scarborough.
