Media team complete opening stages of Wales Rally GB

The FIA World Rally Championship has returned to its heartland with the Sky Bet / ProSpeed rally team successfully tackling the opening stages on this year’s Wales Rally GB. The event started yesterday afternoon (10 November) with a return to one of the most demanding stages on the World Rally calendar, the Great Orme, which is a treacherous 3.3 mile tarmac stage running along the Welsh coastline.

 

The media pairing of Tony Jardine and Bob McKenzie have joined forces again for the first time in over ten years, McKenzie swapping his journalistic role as correspondent for the Daily Express for the co-driving seat alongside Jardine in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9. Thursday’s opening three stages provided the crew with an ideal opportunity to reacquaint themselves and get to grips with the ProSpeed run Mitsubishi. After SS3 the team was placed 55^th overall out of 74 crews that made it to the end of day one.

 

”We resisted the temptation to put in a flyer on the first stage of the rally, as in a four day rally, the dangers of trying to be fastest seriously outweigh the benefits,”  said driver Jardine. He continued, “Flying into the stage on the opening day of the rally would have been crazy. We’ve seen clips on YouTube of cars having big crashes on the Great Orme and I didn’t want to join them. So we were relatively cautious through the stage. Unfortunately, the cars ahead of us had cut a few corners, dragging dirt onto the stage and we made contact with the wall. Bob and I were simply passengers, luckily the wheel took much of the force and we were able to complete the following stages of day one.”

 

The Sky Bet / ProSpeed rally team went through the first of the gravel stages on the rally, Clocaenog (SS3), without incident last night. After an overnight halt in Llandudno, the team was then ready to tackle the more traditional Wales Rally GB stages that Friday had to offer. After completing the eight forest stages of today, with no major problems to report, the media duo now sit in 49^th position overall.

 

“We have had a brilliant day and we are getting used to the car and one another again. Tony is driving brilliantly, I’ve found a rhythm with the notes and we’ve managed to pass cars on the stage! But we cannot get too complacent; we saw a lot of wrecks today not to mention Mikko (Hirvonen) at the side of the road,” said McKenzie.

 

Elsewhere in the rally, late on Friday afternoon, it was confirmed that Sebastien Loeb and his co-driver Daniel Elena are now the 2011 WRC champions scoring a record eighth world drivers’ title after rival Mikko Hirvonen was forced to retire after SS7. Hirvonen damaged his radiator and the Ford team decided against running him under SupeRally rules. Loeb is not having it all his own way however, as Hirvonen’s team-mate, Jari-Matti Latvala is chasing down the French rally leader, reducing the gap to just 1.1 seconds after Friday’s afternoon stages.

 

To keep up-to-date on the progress of the team, read Bob McKenzie’s reports in the sports section of the Daily Express and online at www.express.co.uk. You can also follow the team on Twitter: @Jardine_Int.