...and Moriarty at Rally NorwayFirst International WRC finish for Tony Jardine; First ever WRC finish for Sean Moriarty
Sky Sports broadcaster Tony Jardine and Sean Moriarty of Motorsport News have successfully completed Rally Norway, the first ever World Rally Championship to be held in the country, with Jardine bringing to a close his first World Rally Championship on foreign soil, and Moriarty finishing his first ever World Rally Championship event.
Battling through blizzards, deep snow, fog, and ice over three days, the media pairing finished a commendable 47th overall and 7th in class out of 63 finishers. Castrol Ford driver Mikko Hirovonen won his second ever World Championship event, claiming top spot in Norway ahead of team-mate Marcus Gronholm, who now leads the World Championship.
Pre- event tips given to the media duo from twice World Rally Champion Gronholm, allowed them to gain valuable insight into potential conditions during the challenging three day marathon event, which they were able to implement into their own line of attack. Struggling for control after a flying finish to Stage 6 on the first day, the Sportinglife.com sponsored Fiesta ST failed to slow down in time, ploughing into a thick snow bank.
Thankfully the strong Fiesta coped with the abuse, and carried Jardine and Moriarty through until the remote service, some 100km from the main Service area at the Viking Ship in Hamar. A further scary moment for team occurred when the Fiesta almost crashed into current World Rally Champion Sebastien Loeb, during a road section between stages. Driver, Jardine, momentarily lost concentration, veering into the middle of the road as Loeb was approaching in the opposite direction. A last minute swerve from Jardine enabled the two cars to miss each other by a matter of inches. The second leg of the rally proved to be difficult and dangerous.
Thick snow and dense fog in the Winter Olympics area of Lillehammer, on top of the Norwegian mountains, lead to ‘white out’ and virtually no visibility. After coming into service after Leg two, Jardine commented, “Trying to drive flat in fifth gear over crests in the mountains when you can’t see where you are landing is no fun. I was distinctly nervous and sometimes plain scared.
The cancellation of the 44km stage at the beginning of the day was bitterly disappointing, and caused us to lose our rhythm for the rest of the day due to the stop-start nature of the second leg. The crew had been looking forward to the 44km monster stage, but it was cancelled after Briton Guy Wilkes hit a tree, bounced back into the road and blocked the stage with his Ford Focus WRC car.” But on the final day the Sportinglife.com team got their wish to run through the monster stage plus three others, in more dynamic conditions.
The day proved to be a total contrast to the previous day’s problems of cancellations, fog and deep snow.
“Today has been totally different in contrast to yesterday. We have had fantastic visibility, conditions were ideal and we just flew,” Jardine said.
“We were able to hold our position from a rival Renault Clio and two chasing Mitsubishis over the last 44km of incredible rollercoaster stages.”
Olly Marshall and his ProSpeed team prepared an immaculate Castrol Ford Fiesta ST which never missed a beat, despite the rigours of three days and one night over more than 350 stage km. The only damage done to the car was in a huge sideways moment over the flying finish line of the final stage. Jardine lost control at 80mph, but the soft snow bank saved them, bouncing them back into the road damaging the rear bodywork.
Said Moriarty after the incident, “We had been charging and the adrenaline was flowing, then we were flying towards the trees within sight of the finish board – I thought ‘not now, what a way to end’, but somehow we bounced back on to the road.” Weather conditions at the World Championship event proved unpredictable, changing between snow, ice, mist and slush. Temperatures went from as low as minus 20 to zero on the final day.
Many cars were caught out, with some stages resembling car graveyards, but with help from Kumho, special spiked tyres were fitted to the Castrol Ford Fiesta providing a solid footing on all surfaces, allowing the team to constantly push hard on the stages. Co-driver Moriarty said, Daniel Carlsson, competing in a Citroen Xsara WRC car, said it was one of the most difficult Winter Rallies he has ever competed on. With this in mind, I am ecstatic to have completed my first World Rally Championship in such a challenging environment. I could not have asked for a more committed service team than ProSpeed to guide me through.”
Olly Marshall, Managing Director of ProSpeed, ended, “It’s a successful finish for the team as well as for Norway. Our Fiesta ST has been totally reliable throughout the rally, which meant that we could push hard without having to worry about the car not being able to cope. The organisation of the event has been first class, especially as it is Norway’s first attempt at hosting a World Rally Championship.”
Tony Jardine summed up his feelings about the first ever World Championship event in Norway: “The atmosphere was electric, with an estimated 100,000 plus fans waving flags, enjoying their barbeques and marvelling at the spectacle of World stars in sideways rally cars over three days. The whole event has been organised superbly. The Norwegian people were very welcoming, the stages were tremendous and the views are amazing. It has turned out to be a real test of man and machine.
“I have to thank my co-driver Sean Moriarty, who is not only a great hard-working journalist, but a great grafter of a co-driver too. He knows the co-drivers job inside out and pushed me throughout the rally. Without him we wouldn’t have had such a great result. It has been a pleasure working with him.”
