This weekend saw yet more frustration for teenage rally driver Tom Cave, as he tackled the Severn Valley Stages rally at the wheel of his Subaru Impreza Group N car. The power steering failed on the first loop of stages and despite excellent performances in the afternoon, he and co-driver Craig Parry were unable to climb any higher than fifth in the limited stage distance.
Once again, it seemed that luck had deserted Tom this weekend. No more than 400 metres into the first of the opening three stages, the power steering on the Impreza failed, a broken pipe eventually diagnosed as the cause.
This meant that Tom was forced to drive the 18 stage miles of the opening loop with no power steering, haemorrhaging time in the process. In fact, by the time the crew returned to service after the first loop of three stages, they were lying 11th overall, more than a minute off the lead.
Once the Davies Motorsport Services technicians had resolved the power steering problem, Tom and Craig launched a flat-out attack on the remaining three stages.
They were third fastest behind a pair of World Rally Cars on the fourth stage, second fastest by just 0.8seconds on the penultimate and took the stage win on the last timed test of the event. This was despite catching the Ford Focus World Rally Car that was running ahead of them on the road and actually stopping within the stage for 10 seconds, as they could not see through the Focus' dust cloud.
By the time they arrived at the finish ramp, they had climbed to fifth overall and third in the Welsh championship class, 53 seconds behind the eventual winner.
Commenting, Tom said; "It was a very frustrating event to begin with, particularly as we knew there was nothing we could do to resolve the problem. We just tried to push on as well as we could but it's such hard work to drive with no power steering and you end up losing so much time.
"I think if there had been a couple more long stages, we might have been able to improve our position even further. But then, you can't keep thinking about 'What Ifs...'. The general pace of the event was very high and I'm pleased with our performance and to get a finish under our belt. That was good for team morale, after a lot of non-finishes recently."
Tom's next event will be this coming weekend (11 June), when he contests the Dukeries Rally, the fifth round of the BTRDA series and taking place in the heart of England, in Sherwood Forest. Tom currently leads the Production Cup of the series, after three dominant wins earlier this season and he will be keen to extend his advantage at the head of the field with another victory.
