National newspaper sports journalist to make debut in Wales on the Pro Art Swansea Bay Rally (18 July).
Hot on the heels of the news that Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen will drive in Rally Finland this August, and that five times World Rally Champion Sebastien Loeb may drive an F1 Toro Rosso in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix later this year, F1 correspondent for the Daily Telegraph, Tom Cary has announced that he too is crossing disciplines to compete in the World Rally Championship.
Tom Cary, from Wandsworth in London, is temporarily leaving the Grand Prix press box to become a competition rally co-driver. However, not to be outdone by champions Loeb and Raikkonen, he will have his own ex-World Champion as a mentor - Scotland’s Robert Reid, who co-drove Richard Burns to World Rally Championship glory in 2001. Cary will learn to be a navigator alongside Sky Sports motorsports presenter Tony Jardine, an experienced amateur driver with 17 World Championship and 10 European Championship rally finishes under his belt.
Cary’s aim is to be a fully qualified international rally navigator by November, when he is hoping to compete in Rally Scotland and then the World Rally of Sweden in early 2010. Tom has just four national events and one intensive training session to achieve the necessary qualifications, and will have to fit the intensive training programme around an already hectic schedule covering Formula One Grand Prix racing for the Daily Telegraph. The rookie journalist has already started to train with World Champion Reid, who met for a first session at Silverstone’s Experience Centre.
Having passed his BARS exam, the MSA’s (the governing body of the sport in UK) initial licence test for rallying, Cary was then presented with his Alpinestars fireproof safety apparel and new Arai helmet. In order to understand the different disciplines of rallying Tom then set about learning how to drive a rally car on Silverstone’s purpose built rally stage, sliding the car on the loose surface and mastering the techniques of over-steer and under-steer. Speaking after his first experience behind the wheel of a rally car,
Cary commented, “I can honestly say that my initial rally experience at Silverstone was even more impressive than being raced around the Grand Prix track by Lewis Hamilton in a Mercedes SLR - and that was superb. I can see the rallying bug is going to bite, although I am nervous about the prospects of my first rally, especially when I tell people my driver will be Tony Jardine! They just shake their heads and wish me good luck.”
Despite Cary’s apprehension, Robert Reid was impressed with the journalist’s speed of learning;
“Considering we threw so much at someone who knows nothing about rallying, he was impressive. Tom has his first event this Saturday (18 July) in the Pro Art Swansea Bay National Rally. He is being thrown in at the deep end and he is going to have to learn how to swim very quickly. But I think he will cope well.”
The York based team ProSpeed, run by Team Principal Ollie Marshall, will prepare and run the 180 b.h.p. Castrol Ford Fiesta for the media duo, as Cary makes his debut. ProSpeed have extended their business offering since Jardine last drove for the team. They now offer ProSpeed Performance for fast road and track day markets, while ProSpeed Elite transforms the way a prestige vehicle is maintained, further expanding their experience which will be of benefit to developing their competition team.
Thanks to Marshall, the team’s group N showroom class Fiesta will continue to run on the effective, strong Kumho tyres and the ProSpeed boss is looking forward to helping develop the new team recruit; “I understand Tom is very enthusiastic and he is approaching this challenge intelligently. However, just as we need to engineer and develop the car, we will have to help him engineer and develop his own skills - and we need to start quickly, as it is a race against time for him to qualify for an international licence.”
