Hi All,
A good time was had in Turkey I must say! It was nice to go to a rally with no pressure and put the disappointment of the Circuit of Ireland behind us. We were having a great event, and lying 16th overall and leading the fiestas by 6 minutes on Saturday evening when a rear hub sheared bringing an end to a promising run. We ended up re-joining under SupeRally rules and finished second fiesta, but I was still happy with my pacenotes, and I am confident to return next year in the S2000.
And then the the toughest challenge, getting home! I hopped on the M-Sport coach home outside the Green Park hotel at 5pm on Monday and travelled non stop until I reached the shakedown for the Pirelli at 3pm on Thursday! It was an adventure travelling thru Turkey, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Austria, Germany, Belgium, France and finally Britain! I was wrecked tired and after shakedown we went and done the first day of recce straight away. Recce commenced again on Friday morning and the rally finally begun on Friday evening. Immediately there was a problem with dust, and running first on the road became a huge advantage, and we ended the evening 30 seconds off the lead. We had a good run all day Saturday pulling time from Gwyndaf Evans, all the way to the last stage where we had the gap whittled down to 4 seconds. I was quietly confident that we could do the business but 4 miles into the stage we got a puncture and dropped 3 mins. What made it all the more harder was that the leader stopped on the last stage, potentially giving us second or indeed a victory, but unfortunately it was not to be. However I was still very happy to be on the pace, and we set the majority amount of fastest times in the rally.
Next weekend we return to tarmac and possibly the most famous rally in Ireland, the Rally of the Lakes. Were running 3 on the road so no pressure!
Ill try and update again after the recce.
All the best
Craig
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