on verge of start of 2008 rally campaign
Next weekend will see Welsh schoolboy Tom Cave begin his 2008 rally campaign in earnest, as he tackles the second round of the 2008 Latvian National Rally Championship, the Talsi Rally. While the 16 year-old from Aberdovey has already contested the event once before in 2007 and is looking forward to this year’s edition, he predicts a tough and challenging rally, which takes place after he begins to take his GCSEs.
The UK’s first minor to compete in international rallying has already completed the pre-event recce, thanks to a special dispensation form the Latvian Automobile Federation. This is because the recce for other competitors takes place on the Thursday and Friday preceding the weekend event and Tom is unable to take time off from his studies, at the most crucial time in his education so far.
The Talsi Rally is the second round of the 2008 Latvian national series and Cave missed the opening round due to a sports injury. However, he competed on the recent Rally Kekava, a round of the Latvian RallySprint series, as a final preparation for his national campaign. He finished that event second in class and 19th overall, fulfilling his objective of learning his new-for-2008 Group N Ford Fiesta ST and establishing a base set-up for Talsi.
He is already familiar with this weekend’s event, having contested it in 2007. However, he will be hoping for more success this year. On his first excursion, he went off the road and got his MG ZR beached on a tree stump and despite the efforts of determined Latvian rally spectators, was unable to get back on the road before running out of time.
He also admits that he was unprepared for the challenges that the event would pose. High temperatures, long stages with changing nature and a full two days of competition took their toll on the-then 15 year-old. However, Tom has developed a physical fitness regime with the objective of becoming stronger and building his endurance, both physically and mentally, to cope with exactly these kind of conditions.
Tom explains; “Last year, our first in the National championship, was a big step forward for me and Gemma [Price, co-driver]. I wasn’t fully prepared for the event and in that situation, it bit back at me. It was hot and very tricky and we went off the road on the seventh stage. I feel we were unlucky to get stuck on a stump, as several other cars had gone off at the same spot but managed to get back on again.
“But there were times on the event where I felt very tired, physically and mentally and like I wasn’t able to continue. I simply wasn’t ready for the conditions but I learned an awful lot, which has meant that this year, I will be much better prepared.”
Tom’s fitness programme over the winter has concentrated on building stamina and upper-body strength, to cope with the demands of competing on the Talsi event and the others in the championship. He mixes rowing and running to build overall endurance and combines that with resistance training to increase strength, particularly in the arms and upper body. However, Tom admits that this weekend’s rally is the toughest challenge he is likely to face this season.
“The Talsi rally has a huge variety of conditions. Most of the stages are very fast and open, on loose gravel with many of the locals comparing the stages to those in Finland for the World Rally Championship round. However, there are also stages on the event that are very tight, twisty and technical and to succeed, you have to be completely reliant on the pace notes to understand how to deal with the blind crests and the fast, open corners.
“The stages are also quite soft, so they tend to cut-up quite badly and a lot of rocks get pulled out into the road, which we need to be very wary of. This will make things tricky for us, with two wheel-drive but at least, it will be the same for our competitors.”
Having completed the recce two weeks prior to the start of the event, Tom has a much clearer idea of the challenges ahead.
“The recce was a very long weekend – we didn’t get home until 4am on Monday morning! But it was very good. We are allowed three passes over the stages for the Latvian National championship events and they will definitely be needed. It’s quite a tricky event and will be a huge challenge but one I’m definitely looking forward to.
“I think the crucial stage will be SS9 – Sarcene. It’s over 34Km in length and combines tight and twisty sections with very fast, flowing open sections. The mid-part is fast with a little technical part at the beginning but much more at the end. It’s going to be hard work, arriving there already having done 30Km and having to work very hard to the end of the stage. Also, everything will be extremely hot by that point – Me, Gemma, the tyres, dampers and brakes and that will make things even tougher.
“I think the key will be to find the right pace for me and for the car and then maintain that over the duration of the whole event, not just a single stage. I need to be able to get to the end of every stage with a little in reserve, rather than hanging on by my fingernails. The objective this weekend has to be to finish the event and then, we will see how competitive we are at the end.”
The event itself begins on the afternoon of Saturday 17 May with a pair of traditional gravel stages. The first day ends with a double run of the asphalt Talsi town centre stage, which last year brought rally fans and residents alike out in droves.
The action resumes on the morning of Sunday 18 May with six more stages, including the penultimate, the 34Km Sarcene test, before a run around a superspecial stage close to the rally base in Talsi itself. The competitors reach the final podium at 18.00Hrs local-time.
