in Poland prior to Goodwood appearance
The UK’s first minor international rally driver, Tom Cave, will make his return to the FIA World Rally Championship next weekend, when he takes part in Rally Poland, the eighth round of the 2009 series. Following a complete rebuild of his Group N Ford Fiesta and two successful UK tarmac outings since his last WRC round, Rally Portugal, the 17 year-old is looking forward to his return to the WRC and to gravel.
Rally Poland is also making a welcome return to the WRC, after an absence of 25 years. Last forming part of the WRC in 1973, this year’s event will be completely new to the entire WRC family, levelling the playing field and allowing drivers and teams a rare chance to demonstrate exactly what they are capable of. And it’s this fact that is firing Tom up the most, as he anticipates the stages based around the host town of Mikolajki, some 240Km from Warsaw in an area of outstanding natural beauty surrounded by forests and lakes.
At the suggestion of former champion co-driver Phil Mills, Tom found videos of the stages that make up the event and was pleasantly surprised by what he saw; “The Polish stages look very similar to those in Latvia, where I competed for two years, so I’m hoping that my experience there will help me next weekend,” he said.
“The stages look a little narrower than Latvia with more crests and a lot of people liken it to Rally Finland but without the jumps. The surface also looks quite sandy, so while it will probably be okay for the front-runners, it may well end up fairly rutted by the time we get there.”
The event is also a round of the Fiesta Sporting Trophy International, the one-make series featuring the same specification Fiestas as Tom’s. Therefore, he is also looking forward to mixing it with the FSTi regulars once again, as he did in the few stages his car held together in Portugal, where he was consistently in the top three Fiesta stage times.
“As Poland is a round of the Fiesta series, I’d like to think that we can be in amongst the action with the regulars. If we could be in the top three Fiestas, that would be ideal. However, what I’m really after is a solid result this weekend, after the disaster in Portugal and to prove that last year’s Wales Rally GB result wasn’t a one-off. I think next weekend, we’ll drive our own event on the first leg then assess where we are and whether to up the game and push for a result.”
There will be another variable for Tom next weekend, since neither of the two co-drivers who have worked with him recently, regular Gemma Price and stand-in Phil Pugh, are available. Therefore, another highly experienced and professional co-driver, Craig Parry, will co-drive for Tom in Poland. While the two haven’t competed together before, Parry has been working in Poland with a local driver for the last two years, so his local knowledge and experience combined with Tom’s drive and pace should stand the crew well on the Polish stages.
There’s also another good reason for Tom to get a good result and keep his Fiesta in one piece: He has been invited to display his car on the International Rally Drivers Club stand at the world-famous Goodwood Festival of Speed the weekend after the event and drive it on the event’s famous rally stage. Tom is a member of the IRDC and his Fiesta will sit alongside a classic Lancia Fulvia rally car, showcasing two ends of the rallying spectrum as well as demonstrating its capabilities in action over the three days. Understandably, Tom is thrilled at the prospect.
“It’s a real privilege to be invited to show our car on the IRDC stand at this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed and to take part on the rally stage. It’s one of the most famous motorsport events of the year and to be part of it would be incredible. The car will have to travel straight there from Poland, so that’s another reason to make sure we get to the finish with no silly mistakes!”
This year’s Rally Poland begins with a short superspecial stage around Mikolajki on the evening of Thursday 25th June before a double run of three stages on Friday. Saturday sees a further six stages, three each run twice before four more on Sunday, followed by a second run around the Mikolajki superspecial stage to finish the event.
