Teenage rally driver Tom Cave enjoyed an excellent first outing in his Proton Satria Neo Super2000 this weekend on the Plains Rally, the fourth round of the BTRDA series. The 18 year-old was competing in a four-wheel drive car for the first time and was delighted to set a string of top five stage times, finish sixth overall and second in class N4.
After several tests in the Proton, Tom knew that the only way to gauge the work so far was to actually compete and the Plains Rally, run close to his home in Aberdyfi, is renowned as one of the best in the series.
He and stand-in co-driver Shaun O'Gorman started very well but the early promise was to be hindered slightly, as he was held up on the first stage of the event for 20 seconds by a car ahead which had spun and was finding it difficult to clear the road. As it transpired, this time loss would prove decisive in the final result.
The second stage went well while the youngster found the third, the Pantperthog test, was trickier than expected and he was only ninth fastest.
The team made several set-up changes to the car at the first service, including adjustments to the ride height and damper settings and the benefits were immediately clear, as Tom was fifth-fastest on the following Hafren test.
He improved his pace, setting the third-fastest time on the second run of Gartheiniog and fourth-fastest on Cwmcelli, which saw lots of loose gravel on the surface.
However, it was the final stage of the event where he shone, setting the second-fastest time outright, behind only the fearsome Peugeot-Cosworth of Andy Burton and beating World Rally Cars in the process.
Tom picked up an erroneous two-minute penalty early in the event, when he was given an incorrect time but O'Gorman dealt with the problem quickly and efficiently.
By the time the crew arrived at the finish ramp, they were sixth overall and second in class N4, by just 15 seconds, Therefore, without the time loss on the first stage when they were held up, Tom predicts he could have won the class and finished certainly fifth, potentially fourth overall, a remarkable achievement for the youngster in his 4WD competition debut.
Commenting after the event, Tom said; "What a fantastic way to start with the Proton. This was an amazing event and I'm absolutely delighted with the result. Of course, I'm also a little gutted that it could possibly have been better had we not been held up on the first stage but the pace and potential of the car are clear for all to see.
"I think there are so many positives to take away from this weekend. The pace of the car was spot-on, I felt very at-home with it and while I'm understanding how to get the best from it all the time, I'm very pleased that we were able to show good pace at this early stage. The Davies Motorsport team worked very well, as did Shaun, who not only delivered the notes perfectly, also dealt with the rogue penalty very quickly and perhaps most importantly, the Proton ran faultlessly all day.
"This has given me a huge confidence boost for the next event. Up until this weekend, the Proton in competition was a complete unknown for me. The testing we have done has gone well but you never know how well until you actually compete and it looks like we have been heading in the right direction.
"I realise that there is still a huge amount to learn, both about the car, how to drive it and how to adapt to varying conditions but I feel much more confident about tackling three-day events after a result like this."
Tom's next event will be the Severn Valley Stages, based in Builth Wells over the weekend of 3-6 June. He has opted to contest this event instead of Rally d'Italia to gain more experience of the Proton before joining the Intercontinental Rally Challenge on Rally Ypres at the end of June.
