Tom Cave's dream result of a potential fourth place overall on this year's Rally of Scotland was shattered on the final day, when the 18 year-old suffered a puncture on the first run through the Loch Ard test and then became stuck on a bank on the final stage, went Over Time Limit and hence, out of the rally.
The second and final day of the event began well, with Tom heading out of the morning service sixth on the road and in fifth place overall in his Proton Satria Neo S2000. The first stage of the day, Clashmore, went smoothly, with Tom setting the sixth-fastest stage time, just seven seconds behind team-mate Alister McRae, who was running under the SupeRally regulations.
A puncture he picked up in the stage didn't affect his performance greatly and this was changed on the road section on the way to the second stage, the first of two runs through the 29Km Loch Ard test.
However, 10Km into the stage, he picked up another puncture and with 20Km still to run, he and co-driver Craig Parry elected to pull over to change the flat tyre. Unfortunately, this time, the Proton's on-board jack refused to lift the car off the ground, regardless of what the crew tried. Therefore, they were faced with no choice other than to drive out of the stage on the flat tyre, at crawling speed to avoid causing damage to the car. As a result, they lost some 10 minutes, demoting them to ninth in the IRC standings.
Once they had cleared the stage, they were able to make their way to the remote service at Aberfoyle, where the Davies Motorsport technicians replaced all four tyres and the two spares. With the prospect of the stages being even rougher the second time through, Tom elected to take the hardest tyres available, sacrificing outright performance for additional puncture resistance.
The rain which had begun on the first run through Loch Ard had moved across to Clashmore and Tom began by pushing hard to try to regain as much of the lost time as possible. However, the conditions had become extremely tricky and almost caught him out, as he just got away with a large slide towards a ditch. Following the late scare, he decided to back off and ensure that he reached the finish ramp as the only Proton classified in the final standings.
However, there would be a final sting in the tail for the youngster. Despite aiming for a finish, he was caught out when the rear of the car stepped out and dropped a wheel into a ditch on the final stage, pitching it across the road and coming to rest nose-first into the opposite ditch. Unfortunately, there weren't enough spectators close to hand to help retrieve the car and the crew eventually went Over Time Limit and were out of the rally.
Speaking after the finish, Tom said; "Today started really well but I'm devastated that it finished the way it did. The first stage for us was really good and the car felt great. Then it all started going wrong on the first run through Loch Ard. I felt the tyre go flat and knew that we would have to stop and change it, as we still had 20Km to go. But the jack just wouldn't lift the car, so we had to creep out of the stage and managed to get to service.
"Once the boys changed the tyres, we had a bit of a push on the second Clashmore run and again, the feeling was really good. But the rain had made it very tricky and we had a huge moment, so I decided to back right off to make sure we got to the finish.
"We were running the last stage very conservatively, hardly pushing at all when the rear end stepped out on me and the rear wheel dropped into the ditch and pitched us in, nose first. The car was beached on the bank and with no spectators to help us out, we were done for.
"Of course, I'm really annoyed with myself for putting it in the ditch so close to the end. But then at the same time, I think there are a lot of positives that we can take away from the weekend. I hope I've shown that we can be reasonably competitive in the Proton and I'm really pleased with the pace we set, particularly compared with Alister on the second day, when we had a couple of comparable stages.
"I think that looking at the big picture, from my perspective, it's been a good weekend and I hope that I showed what we are capable of in the Proton."
Tom's next event will be Wales Rally of Great Britain in November, the final round of the FIA World Rally Championship but he has yet to confirm what car he will be competing in.
