Teenage rally driver Tom Cave achieved not only his stated objective this weekend but one of his sporting dreams, when he finished the Rallye Automobile Monte Carlo, the first round of the 2010 Intercontinental Rally Challenge. The 18 year-old and co-driver Craig Parry finished 27th of the IRC registered drivers, third in IRC class N3 and eighth in the IRC 2WD Cup category, earning him his first driver point in an international rally championship. Cave knew the event would be a huge challenge – the Monte’s fearsome reputation preceded it and he knew that numerous factors were involved in just reaching the finish, let along achieving a good result. He approached the event with his now-trademark cautious start and it paid off. He set consistently representative times through out the event, negotiating his way round the worst of the black ice and snow-covered tarmac roads the event is famous for. This year’s Monte Carlo featured two full days of competition based around Valence in France, before moving to Monte Carlo for the final day and four stages, including two passes over the infamous Col de Turini. Tom and Craig enjoyed a relatively straightforward event, aided hugely by the information fed back to them by their ice crew of Simon Hughes and Clare Mole, allowed to drive the stages before them and report back on the conditions. The Davies Motorsport Services technicians were forced to change to the spare gearbox on the first day, following a failure of one of the mounts but other than that, the Group N Ford Fiesta he used in 2009 ran without fault. Inevitably, he and Parry suffered several moments on their way to the finish, including a full 360 degree spin at the top of the Turini but the pair were delighted to return to Monaco and achieve their goal. Speaking at the mid-morning finish ceremony after just fours hours’ sleep, Tom said; “We got to the finish, so I feel that is quite an achievement. I’m absolutely exhausted though - this has been, by far the most demanding rally I have done, both physically and mentally. “When we arrived in Monaco on the final day, after one stage on the way down from Valence, it felt like the rally had finished but there were still four stages to go, starting at 10pm. “Perhaps the hardest aspect of this weekend was tyre choice. The information coming from our ice crew was absolutely spot on and I think we did a pretty good job with out choice. However, it is impossible to have exactly the right tyres for all of each stage at any time.   “But it feels amazing to have achieved this result at such a young age. I think the experience will help me enormously for the rest of this season and will definitely pay dividends for the future. It’s taking a little while for what we achieved to sink in – third in class and our first championship point in our last event in the Fiesta is a great way to send the car off.”Tom’s next event is likely to be in the UK in March, as the Tom Cave Racing team expects to take delivery of the car he will use for the rest of the season, a Proton Satria Neo S2000 in late February and this will allow him time for testing before his competition debut.