- Castrol / Daily Telegraph team defy odds to cross the finish line at Stirling Castle
At the final round of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge (IRC) - the Rally of Scotland - Tom Cary, journalist for the Daily Telegraph, faced-up to the daunting challenge of co-driving on an international event for the first time, taking the hot seat alongside Sky Sports’ Tony Jardine. After completing 12 gruelling stages over three days, amid poor weather, Cary has now realised his goal of competing at IRC level with the Castrol / ProSpeed team, finishing 18th overall.
32 entrants started out at Scone Palace in Perthshire (19 November), with the treacherous conditions then claiming many cars the following day on the muddy Craigvinean and Drummond Hill stages. A broken drive shaft from the numerous pot holes lost Jardine and Cary valuable time at the start of the second day, but due to the hard work of the ProSpeed team and the hardiness of the Castrol Fiesta, an elated Cary could complete his mission and cross the finish line at Stirling Castle on Saturday night (21 November).
Cary started his training to become a co-driver back in July of this year, and said after Rally Scotland, “I was a little anxious coming into the weekend, especially after the recce. It was horrible weather and it looked as if it was going to be very muddy and slippery for the event, which it was. We had the drive shaft problem first thing on Friday; we were going well at the time, had a good rhythm and it just killed us and lost us about eight minutes. Because of that, looking at the overall leader board was quite frustrating as we were actually faster than three or four other cars in Saturday’s stages but just couldn’t claw back any positions due to the final stage, stage 13, having to be cancelled.
“Rally Scotland has been a big step up for me from the national rallies we have been doing - the time controls, re-grouping, the weighing of the cars, the whole thing has just been on another level.”
Following the inaugural Rally of Scotland, driver Jardine was full of praise for the event and his navigator, “As far as I’m concerned Rally Scotland is a feat in itself, it’s an incredible event. It’s got the most awe-inspiring scenery and is one of the most adventurous and punishing rallies. We just had to keep the car going despite a broken drive shaft, broken uprights and broken suspension arms, it was a question of patching the Fiesta up all the time. Tom has done a fantastic job. He had no intercom on one of the stages in the dark, guided us home successfully, and has been cool and calm throughout. Getting to the finish was a great achievement and down to the hard work of Tom and the ProSpeed team.”
Throughout the Daily Telegraph campaign, ProSpeed Motorsport has supported the media duo and prepared the Castrol Kumho-shod car from their base in York. Olly Marshall, team boss of ProSpeed, said, “It has been great to work with Tom this year, and he has more than stepped up to the IRC challenge. I am really pleased for Tom and Tony that they managed to finish the Rally of Scotland - they deserve it and the amount of preparation they both put in during the recce this week really showed.”
Whilst on-event during their hectic rally schedule Jardine and Cary have also benefited from added assistance provided by Andy Beale, development engineer from McLaren Automotive. Beale commented, “The stages were amazingly rough in Perthshire and it gave us plenty to do on the car, we have never been so busy during the services. It was great to see IRC Champion Kris Meeke in action against Guy Wilks and winning here in the UK, and well done to Tony and Tom for almost making it through in one piece!”
In just under three months time the Castrol / Daily Telegraph team will be reunited once again, this time for the opening round of the FIA World Rally Championship – Rally Sweden.
