...on his stage rally debut
Castrol Motorsport News team use local knowledge for Rallye Sunseeker Top road rally driver Graham Dance, co-driving for Sky Sports Tony Jardine finished 32nd overall and 1st in class on his first ever stage rally. Despite Dance having no experience with reading pace notes, the Castrol / Motorsport News team overcame the opposition at Rallye Sunseeker (22-23 February)
Hundreds of spectators, encouraged by the mild weather, turned out to watch the opening stages of the rally on Friday night. The first stage, which was repeated twice, ran through the winter gardens and along the sea front between the two piers at Bournemouth and Boscombe. Sand, blown off the beach, covered some areas of the track leaving a slippery surface, however the team’s Kumho tyre shod Ford Fiesta ST150 had no problems finding grip through the twisting turns on the pier approach.
Bournemouth based Dance, commenting on his first stages, said,
“The atmosphere of this event is unlike any event that I have competed in before. I am used to arriving in a tiny welsh village at nine o’clock at night to sign in at an old cow shed. The amount of support for the rally, especially from people who live locally, has been incredible.” He went on to say,
“It has been great to have the opportunity to work with Tony. I have learnt a lot and I feel so much more confident with reading pace notes. It really seemed to click on the second run of the Turbo Dynamics stage and I think that our time for this stage shows that we had a good run. The ProSpeed team kept the car running faultlessly throughout the whole event allowing Tony and I to focus all of our concentration on the stages. It was amazing to see a top professional team at work as that level of support is not allowed in road rallying” ProSpeed Motorsport, run by Olly Marshall, have supported Jardine since 2006 including several rounds of the World Rally Championship.
“I am really impressed with the progress that Graham has made during the rally. He is definitely a co-driver to keep your eye on and I am sure we will be seeing more of him in the future,” said Marshall. The Castrol / Motorsport News team was also
supported by McLaren SLR technician Andy Beale. Commenting on the challenges the team faced Beale said, “Rallye Sunseeker requires a management car on almost every stage of the event, so as well as the work that we usually do to ensure the car runs smoothly we have to jump in the chase car to service between stages on the roadside. We never know what is going to happen so it is real challenge to keep to schedule on an event like this.”
Driver Jardine said “It has been a pleasure and a delight to work with a navigator of Graham’s calibre. He has made the transition from road rallying to stage rallying seamlessly. He was in control right from the start. His coolness, timing, organisation and most importantly his knowledge and understanding of rallying has proved to be a real asset. It is brilliant that he has a cup to take home from his debut rally, he certainly deserves it. “Rallye Sunseeker is always a popular event and this year has been no different. There is a lot of hard work that goes on behind the scenes and the organisation has been fantastic. The condition and preparation of the stages has been first class.”
