After brief testing just days before Round Two of the MSA British Rally Championship, young rally driver, Tom Cave celebrated his first win in the Citroen DS3 R3 rally car. Building on his past success, Tom, partnered with Craig Parry, took the win at his 'home' event, the Bulldog Rally in Wales, finishing three seconds ahead of Keith Cronin/Marshall Clarke. Tom also won the Pirelli 'Star driver' award.
As the first outing for Tom in the DS3 R3, he hopes to build on this success as the BRC progresses as well as continuing to impress in the newly created Citroen Racing Trophy.
The new Citroen DS3 R3 offered a multitude of challenges. The main one came with testing, as the car wasn't ready in time to offer a significant testing period. Converted to gravel spec by DMS, Tom had only a few days to get a feel for the Citroen before driving in a competitive environment. However, he was satisfied that the set-up he developed would perform brilliantly come the event.
The morning of the Bulldog rally went well, though Tom admits the first stage was a little slower than his usual pace as he was getting used to the car. Such worries were soon in the past though, as Tom pushed harder in stages two and three. A tyre change between those timed tests was a wise tactical move, leaving Tom with fresh tyres for the longer, more aggressive third stage.
Commenting, Tom said: "We knew that stage three was going to be really hard on the tyres. Not only because of the gravel, but also because it was really warm. That's strange for Wales in March! With new tyres on the front we could push harder with a 10-15 second gain a real possibility. We carried the two tyres we'd used in stages one and two as spares though, just in case something did happen."
Tom went back to service after stage three with a five second lead, though the decision was made not change the setup of the car in any way. After the performance in the first three stages, Tom was confident he could push even harder through the next three without taking any unnecessary risks.
What would turn out to be the final three stages of the day saw similar tactics from Tom, with a slightly more aggressive push on stages 4 and 5 along with a considerable increase in pace on stage 6. Much like the morning's stages, tyres were used sparingly leaving plenty of life in them for the longer, more important stage six. Tom explains:
"We only carried one spare for stage six because the front tyres still had loads of life left in them. Again, like the morning's stages, we just wanted to push hard on the longer stage and create the biggest time difference we could. We did have one moment on a long right-hander. It tightened towards the end and there was the danger of colliding with some logs. Luckily the car powered out of the trouble and we were able to carry on. Lucky really, as some other drivers were having much bigger moments."
The last few miles of stage six offered even more challenges, thanks in no small part to the heat and gravely conditions pushing the tyres to their extremes. Even so, Tom easily held onto the lead. More stages were due to take place, but due to safety concerns surrounding lighting issues, the Bulldog Rally came to a close after stage six, securing Tom and Craig's first win the brand new Citroen DS3 R3, along with their first MSA British Rally Championship victory.
Tom's next event will be the Pirelli International leg of the BRC, centred around 100 miles of Welsh and Cumbrian forests during the 27th and 28th of April. Another two-day event, it promises even more challenges, though Tom is confident that with the AutoMeca Racing prepared Citroen DS3 R3 beneath him, he can achieve another podium finish.
