Crash claims media team on Colin McRae Forest Stages

The  Castrol  /  ProSpeed  team  succumbed  to  wet  and  treacherous  conditions  on  the  hills around Perth when Sky Sports presenter Tony Jardine and his guest co-driver, Motor Sport Magazine editor Damien Smith, smashed into the rocks on the notorious Errochty test during the Colin McRae Forest Stages Rally (Saturday 3 October).

Smith was competing on the event in order to settle unfinished business, having retired on his rally  debut  with  Jardine  on  the  Swansea  Bay  Rally  a  year  earlier.  The  lure  of  the  famous McRae name drew him to make his return in Scotland.

On a rally in which even newly-crowned Intercontinental Rally Challenge (IRC) Champion Kris Meeke failed to finish, and a crew had to be cut out of their Vauxhall Nova on the first stage of the day, Jardine and Smith were frustrated by disruptions and ever-changing conditions.

Smith said, “After a difficult start to our rally we began to settle down to a good pace on the second stage, Drummond Hill, only for a red flag caused by a rolled Escort Mk II to stop us in our  tracks.  We got back into a rhythm on the next stage only for a fast left-hander to catch Tony out. It was disappointing not to make the finish but once again the ProSpeed team have given me an experience I will never forget.”

Jardine said, “The Colin McRae Stages was a very challenging event, just as the great man himself  would  have  wished.  Damien  had  his  hands  full  trying  to  navigate  and  call  the  pace notes as the scenery and surface changed so rapidly in the pouring rain and team technician Andy Beale had to lower the pressures on our Kumho tyres to give us better grip in the mud.

“During  the  weekend  we  even  got  into  trouble  with  the  law  at  one  point  after  a  couple  of navigational misdemeanours caused us to be escorted back to the service area by two police motorcycle patrol men! I reckon Damien was relieved when we crashed out as his purgatory was over!”

ProSpeed  boss  Olly  Marshall  said  after  the  long  rescue  operation  to  retrieve  the  stricken Castrol Fiesta from the remote Scottish hills late on Saturday night, “Tony doesn’t often crash. He and Damien had finally got into their stride after all the disruptions and they were pushing a bit too hard, as often happens in rallying. We were relieved that they were both uninjured, and the car will live to fight another day.”

The Castrol / ProSpeed team will be back in action on the Cheviot Rally when Tom Cary, from the Daily Telegraph, resumes his co-driving duties in two weeks time.

Hot on the heels of the news that Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen will drive in Rally Finland  this  August,  and  that  five  times  World  Rally  Champion  Sebastien  Loeb may  drive  an  F1  Toro  Rosso  in  the  Abu  Dhabi  Grand  Prix  later  this  year,  F1 correspondent  for  the  Daily  Telegraph,  Tom  Cary  has  announced  that  he  too  is crossing disciplines to compete in the World Rally Championship.

Tom  Cary,  from  Wandsworth  in  London,  is  temporarily  leaving  the  Grand  Prix press box to become a competition rally co-driver. However, not to be outdone by champions  Loeb  and  Raikkonen,  he  will  have  his  own  ex-World  Champion  as  a mentor  -  Scotland’s  Robert  Reid,  who  co-drove  Richard  Burns  to  World  Rally Championship glory in 2001. Cary will learn to be a navigator alongside Sky Sports motorsports presenter Tony Jardine,  an  experienced  amateur  driver  with  17  World  Championship  and  10 European Championship rally finishes under his belt.

Cary’s aim is to be a fully qualified international rally navigator by November, when he is hoping to compete in Rally Scotland and then the World Rally of Sweden in early 2010. Tom has just four national events and one intensive training session to achieve  the  necessary  qualifications,  and  will  have  to  fit  the  intensive  training programme around an already hectic schedule covering Formula One Grand Prix racing for the Daily Telegraph. The rookie journalist has already started to train with World Champion Reid, who met  for  a  first  session  at  Silverstone’s  Experience  Centre. 

Having  passed  his BARS exam, the MSA’s (the governing body of the sport in UK) initial licence test for rallying, Cary was then presented with his Alpinestars fireproof safety apparel and  new  Arai  helmet.  In  order  to  understand  the  different  disciplines  of  rallying Tom then set about learning how to drive a rally car on Silverstone’s purpose built rally stage, sliding the car on the loose surface and mastering the techniques of over-steer and under-steer. Speaking   after   his   first   experience   behind   the   wheel   of   a   rally   car,  

Cary commented, “I can honestly say that my initial rally experience at Silverstone was even  more  impressive  than  being  raced  around  the  Grand  Prix  track  by  Lewis Hamilton in a Mercedes SLR - and that was superb. I can see the rallying bug is going to bite, although I am nervous about the prospects of my first rally, especially when I tell people my driver will be Tony Jardine! They just shake their heads and wish me good luck.”

Despite  Cary’s  apprehension,  Robert  Reid  was  impressed  with  the  journalist’s speed of learning;

“Considering we threw so much at someone who knows nothing about rallying, he was impressive. Tom has his first event this Saturday (18 July) in the Pro Art Swansea Bay National Rally. He is being thrown in at the deep end and he is going to have to learn how to swim very quickly. But I think he will cope well.”

The York based team ProSpeed, run by Team Principal Ollie Marshall, will prepare and run the 180 b.h.p. Castrol Ford Fiesta for the media duo, as Cary makes his debut. ProSpeed  have  extended their business offering since Jardine last drove for the team. They now offer ProSpeed Performance for fast road and track day markets, while ProSpeed Elite transforms the way a prestige vehicle is maintained, further expanding their experience which will be of benefit to developing their competition team.

Thanks to Marshall, the team’s group N showroom class Fiesta will continue to run on the effective, strong Kumho tyres and the ProSpeed boss is looking forward to helping develop the new team recruit; “I understand Tom is very enthusiastic and he  is  approaching  this  challenge  intelligently.  However,  just  as  we  need  to engineer and develop the car, we will have to help him engineer and develop his own  skills  -  and  we  need  to  start  quickly,  as  it  is  a  race  against  time  for  him  to qualify for an international licence.”