out of season opener
The UK’s youngest international rally driver, 16 year-old Tom Cave will miss the opening round of this year’s Latvian Rally Championship. Cave, undertaking his second season in one of Europe’s longest-running and most widely-regarded series has been sidelined by an injured elbow, sustained while playing football with his school team.
Cave is embarking on a full campaign in the Latvian national rally championship in 2008, made possible by the Junior Rallying scheme of which he is a founder participant. Junior Rallying has formed close links with the Latvian Automobile Federation and an exclusive agreement allows participants in the scheme to obtain a Latvian International Rally License at the age of 16, at least a year before they can compete in the UK.
Cave will be partnered in 2008 by experienced co-driver Gemma Price, their second season competing together. His Group N Ford Fiesta will be run by the m3motorsport team, which ran Tom as he competed in selected rounds of the series in 2007.
The Latvian series is a seven-round championship, comprising two snow rallies and five gravel events. However, the first round of the series, the Visaginas Rally, was postponed due to lack of snow in the region. Therefore, Tom’s campaign was due to begin on this weekend’s Sarma Rally (16/17 February).
However, while training for the local junior football team, Tom was knocked over and fell on his elbow. It swelled immediately but an X-ray revealed there was no damage to the bones in the area. While this means that the recuperation process should be in the region of two to three weeks, it means that Tom will clearly not be able to compete on the first round.
“I’m glad that nothing is broken,” Cave explained. “At least it means that I can maintain my fitness programme and won’t miss any school. I’m definitely the kind of person who needs to stay active and if the arm was broken and I was in plaster, I wouldn’t be able to do that.
“Of course, it’s a bitter blow to miss the first event of the series, especially after what was to be the season-opener has already been postponed. I also feel bad since people have been let down by this but unfortunately, accidents happen and this couldn’t have been foreseen or avoided.”
The following round of the series actually takes place in Lithuania one week later but there is also a question-mark over this event. The weather is unseasonably warm and as was the case in last week’s Uddeholm Swedish Rally, the second round of the FIA World Rally Championship, snow is scarce.
“There is a possibility that my season will start now on the Talsi Rally in May, the following round of the series. It is a rough, dusty gravel event and the first that I competed on last year. I made a small mistake last year, going off the road and getting beached on some tree stumps. That was a result of not being properly prepared for the conditions – the ambient temperature for the rally was 30°C and I simply wasn’t ready.
“I’ve been working very hard on my fitness and preparation for this season and feel that I will be much better prepared come the event in May. I’m definitely looking forward to it.”
