FSTi World Champions!

Hi All!

Well, what can I say, 4 championships in one year, and a debut year at that! It was a tough rally in Cardiff, for sure the toughest of my career to date.
The recce went well, and I was happy with the notes, and confident to commit to them. We had a shakedown on Thursday morning, based in the classical Margam Park, made famous by the victory road for World Champions every year. It was a good feeling driving down the same stretch of road as people like Petter and Richard celebrated their World Titles in previous years. But in reality, the rest of the stage was very slippy and difficult, and to be honest, not a real representation of what the stages were like. So it was three blasts round the 5km stage, just to make sure all was OK, and we were ready to go. We had the ceremonial start Thursday night, based in Cardiff. It was well put together, and had a good atmosphere. The rally started on Friday morning with a 30km stage to get settled in. We started off very steady, but were fastest all the same. We continued this easy pace all through the day, and we headed into the final Myherin stage, full of confidence after a great day. But 1km from the end of the stage, we had a fault with the engines ECU. We were stopped for 9 minutes in the stage, before we rectified the problem and continued on. I was fully sure that this was the end of our championship campaign, as this promoted our nearest rival Patrick Anglade into the lead of the rally, and demoted us to 8th. But, with thanks to the FSTi's points scoring system, you get a point for every time you set a fastest FSTi stage time.
So we went out on Saturday morning with only one goal, be fastest on every stage. Unfortunately, things didn't start too well. We were seeded far down the field as a result of loosing all the time on Friday, and on the first stage we caught a car, and were held up for 8km. It was very frustrating, made even worse when we came to the end of the stage to find out we only lost the stage by 4 seconds! However, we carried on, and went on to set fastest stage times on the remaining stages that day. We returned to Saturday night service, where all the fastest stage time points were added together. We had actually worked our way back up to 3rd Fiesta. We had also won enough stages to secure the FSTi title, so all we had to do now, was finish!
We took Sunday, extremely careful, and just drove our way around. Rheola was our last stage, featuring the famous "Walters Arena". It was the slowest I have ever driven, and I felt so embarrassed, but, I done what I had to do, and we crossed the finish of the stage FSTi champions for 2009! It was an amazing feeling, and I was just so happy. Finally, all the pressure was off, I had done everything, all the championships that I entered, we had won them.
It was a big team effort all year, Gareth beside me, Tom Gahan and his gifted team of mechanics, and more especially, my own family. Without them this dream would not have been achievable, and I really wouldn't know where I would be without them.
For now, I have got a three week break before Rally Scotland, so it's time to really knuckle down on my fitness before the Fiesta Shootout in December. The mornings are cold and wet, so I am prone to getting the odd drenching, but I suppose it's just all part of the package!
I have my Billy Coleman award interview on tomorrow (Wednesday the 4th) and I'm hoping that it will go well, and I will portray myself in the correct way to the judging panel, as this award would be a crucial part of my 2010 rallying season.
In the meantime, please for call back and keep an eye on the news section and here in the blog.
All the best
Craig