Pirelli International Rally 2003 review.
Story and images provided by RallyingOnline.com (26-27 April 2003).
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Well, for a championship that was supposed to be on its knees, this weekend's Pirelli British Rally Championship opening round was a remarkably swift and spectacular resuscitation. Forty three competitive crews lined up for the start of the 2003 Pirelli International Rally, and amongst them were as many world-class British drivers as one would expect to see in any WRC event (including our own Rally GB), plus some exciting foreign drivers. At what other British-based rallies could you expect to see the likes of Mark Higgins, Gwyndaf Evans, Garry Jennings, Jonny Milner, Jari-Matti Latvala, Austin McHale, Tapio Laukkanen, Martin Stenshorne, Mats Anderson, Kris Meeke, Guy Wilks, Mirco Baldacci, Leon Pesticcio, Nik Elsmore and James Thompson battle through classic British forest stages, in dreadful weather, and in the best cars available?
It was a pity that there can only be one winner, such was the determination, skill and commitment of every single crew, but, fast-forwarding to the end, Tapio Laukkanen showed why he's regarded as one of the best drivers around today by claiming the top step of the podium from current British Rally Champion Jonny Milner. Mark Higgins claimed third, having completed a fantastic drive to bring his Super 1600 Clio to the finish only a minute behind Tapio's WRC car, after over 100 stage miles in the so-called 'Killer' Kielder forest complex. At this point, a special mention must be made on behalf of the unfortunate Guy Wilks. Guy rolled his Ford Racing S1600 Puma just one kilometre from the end of the final stage whilst lying third. It was a cruel end to one of the best drives of his career.
Back to the beginning. It's been a long wait. True, PBRC Live was a welcome relief, and a very successful one at that, but 27 October 2002 to 25 April 2003 is a long time to go without any real PBRC action. I don't know if rallying is any different from other sports, but it's obvious that idle minds with no competition to stimulate them tend to find other outlets - usually involving a certain amount of criticism. It's certainly been true this year, particularly whilst the new PBRC management committee found its feet before regaining the momentum that had been started last year. The continuing economic gloom hasn't helped matters either, reducing the number of sponsors prepared to invest in rallying (world-wide, not just in UK), thus limiting the number of teams who can afford to compete in the sport at the highest level.
The cancellation of the Rally of Wales was disappointing, but, with fate having played its hand, it was somehow fitting that Gateshead should once again host the PBRC's opening round. The organisers of the Pirelli-sponsored International Rally - Brian Kinghorn and his colleagues, ably supported by the Cumberland Sporting Car Club, Gateshead Council, and the Pirelli team - always do a superb job with this event (first run in 1975 as the Tour of Cumbria), and this year they brought in several new features and a more compact, competitor-friendly format. City centre starts have their share of critics, but in terms of promotional opportunities and public support, a start close by the famous Millennium Bridge in Gateshead's impressive Baltic Square is about as good as it gets - and the entry list certainly bore this out.
The doom-mongers had predicted terminally small numbers and lack of excitement for the PBRC this year, but the international starting line-up (up on last year) conclusively proved them wrong. A very impressive 13 competitive and diverse Super 1600s were entered (and this without manufacturer support, apart from the ever-reliable Peugeot), consisting of Peugeot's Garry Jennings at the wheel of the sole VLR-prepared works 206; last year's winner Mark Higgins making an exciting return to front-wheel drive in a new RED-prepared Renault Clio; Gwyndaf Evans in the MG ZR (an unofficial MG Sport & Racing entry, courtesy of Peter Young's Creative Media Communications company - Peter being the leading light behind Motorsport in the Midlands and PBRC Live); Simon Hughes in his familiar Clio (red for 2003), though with no main sponsor as yet; S-Mac's Kris Meeke in his Team Palmer Opel Corsa; Steve Hill in the very exciting Alfa 147; two Hi-Tec Fiat Puntos making their PBRC debut in the hands of Italian gravel champion Mirco Baldacci and ex-PBRC N4 driver Leon Pesticcio; four Ford Pumas - the Ford Racing entry for Guy Wilks, plus Barry Clark, Norway's Martin Stenshorne, and the Rallysport Ireland entry for Ryan Champion; and last but not least, Mats Andersson making a welcome return to the PBRC in his Proton Satria.
Next up were the WRC/Group A cars, with the main attention being on current British Rally Champion Jonny Milner, defending his title in the familiar Team Dynamics Toyota Corolla. As always, Milner was upbeat about his chances, but well aware of the threats posed by Jari-Matti Latvala in his M-Sport Ford Focus WRC (the 18-year old Finn currently enjoying a huge reputation, but no doubt anxious to support this with some huge results); late entry Tapio Laukkanen (stepping up from Group N in which he ran last year to a Phil Morgan WRC Subaru); Julian Reynolds, Barry Johnson and Austin McHale - all in Imprezas; James Thompson (fresh from his Mondello Park BTCC wins) in his Ralliart-supported Lancer E6.5; plus (almost) local man Steve Petch in his usual Hyundai Accent WRC, John Lloyd (Impreza), ex-biker Paul Bird (Accent WRC), the promising Gareth Jones (Impreza), Dougi Hall (Lancer E6), and Richard Hopkins (Impreza). One unfortunate non-starter was Charlie Jukes, whose deal to drive a WRC Impreza fell through at the last minute.
The Production Cup runners were Neil Buckley in his Lancer E5; Nik Elsmore (Impreza); Mark l'Anson (Lancer E6); Jeremy Nolan (Lancer E5); Mike Russell (Impreza) and Tim Mason (Escort Cosworth), followed by the familiar face of Tony Jardine (co-driven by The Times F1 pundit Kevin Easson in Tony's Group N MG ZR); Rob Gill and Steve Loveridge (MG ZRs); PBRC stalwart Ellya Gold (206 GT); British Ladies Rally Champion Kate Heath going for another title in her Seat Ibiza; Markus Foss (Nissan Almera),James Gloster (106 GTi); Shelly Taunt (Micra); and again, last but not least, the irrepressible Neil Burgess in his Mini Cooper, complete with newfangled 'advertising by lights' on his wheels.
Complementing the International entries were two rounds of the Peugeot Super Cup, plus rounds of the Ford Ka and Volkswagen Polo championships, the Army Land Rovers and an event for national crews. The International field also included five teams contesting the newly-formed PBRC Nations Cup.
The compact event was divided into two legs: leg one started in Gateshead's impressive Baltic Square at 5.30 on Friday evening, followed by two runs of a centrally-located spectator super-special, then three demanding Kielder stages (in the dark), before service and parc fermé back in Gateshead. The leg two Saturday re-start was from Gateshead International Stadium at 7.00am, followed by a further six Kielder stages with central service at the Hexham Auction Mart. The finish was scheduled for 5.20pm back in Baltic Square.
After the Friday start, the crews drove the short distance to Salt Meadows, where a token spectator stage had been prepared adjacent to the service area and an imaginative Rally Show. It was typical that, after a sunny and warm week, the weather had reverted to type, but the grey skies and persistent rain didn't seem to deter the crowds. One driver in particular who was cursing the weather was James Thompson. He was committed to testing his BTCC Vauxhall at Thruxton on Friday, and had a helicopter standing by to get him up to Gateshead in time for his start position (the organisers had thoughtfully put this back to number 41). Unfortunately the low cloud-base made helicopter flying out of the question, so he commandeered a fixed-wing from Thruxton airfield and flew into Newcastle airport. There he had a motorcycle courier waiting for him, who gave him an interesting ride to the start ramp, on the back of a Honda Fireblade!
Barry Johnson set the pace from the start, although with two runs over a stage that took the WRC car drivers barely 50 seconds to complete, tenths of a second only separated the top crews. These spectator stages are important for the PBRC to promote itself to a wider audience, but most of the drivers made no secret of the fact that they couldn't wait to get into Kielder for the remaining three stages of leg one. An early casualty was the Mini of Neil Burgess/Anna McColl, sliding wide on a tight corner and terminally damaging the steering. Neil's judgement turned out to be spot-on though, because the car expired just outside the Pirelli hospitality tent, and the crew was last seen disappearing inside in search of something quite strong to drown their sorrows.
Those who had been looking forward to Kielder soon had cause to regret their words. By the time Mark Higgins started the 11.97-mile Harwood stage at 7.55pm, it was getting dark and the fog was closing in. Jari-Matti Latvala (call him JML for short) set the pace, but the complete lack of visibility negated any horsepower advantage, and the more nimble 1600s of Higgins, Wilks and Evans were really flying, keeping Jonny Milner behind in fifth place. Apparently the fog was as bad as most drivers could remember anywhere, especially considering that Friday evening's three stages of Harwood, Wether Lair and Highfield represented 32 miles of very fast gravel tracks with plenty of blind crests and sharp corners thrown in for good measure.
Comments ranged from "awful" to "never experienced problems like this before". In short, it was carnage, and reports were coming in thick and fast of lights not working, cars being caught on the stage, and several crews off the road. JML lost a massive eight minutes after sliding off at the same corner that unfortunately ended the event for Garry Jennings, who was unable to regain the track. James Thomson rolled his Mitsubishi off the road but was able to continue with only superficial body damage. By the time the cars arrived back at parc fermé in Gateshead, Guy Wilks was leading Mark Higgins by 59 seconds, with Gwyndaf Evans a further 50 seconds behind. The nearest WRC car was Tapio Laukkanen's in fourth place, two and a half minutes behind Wilks. Mirco Baldacci had done really well to keep his Punto up in ninth place; the poor chap confessing to never having seen fog like this in Italy.
Incredibly, Saturday morning dawned sunny and clear, and as the field headed towards Kielder once more for the second leg's six stages, the WRC drivers were plotting their revenge for being so humbled by the 1600 brigade. Sure enough, Laukkanen, Milner, JML and Thompson started putting the pressure on, although the latter pair were rather too far behind to challenge for the lead, Thompson in particular having the problem of catching slower cars after being re-seeded in a lowly 17th position after his incident the night before. A cracked windscreen as he returned to the second Hexham service bore testament to this.
A definite pattern soon emerged: Laukkanen, Milner, Thompson and Latvala were the four quickest drivers on five of the six Saturday stages (JML dropping to seventh on SS6), as their power and grip advantage inexorably overcame the 1600s. At the end of SS6, the overall classification was Wilks, Higgins, Evans, Laukkanen, Milner, Reynolds, as the 1600s maintained their overnight advantage (whilst JML worked his way up from 20th to 10th, and Thompson from 14th to sixth by the finish). After SS7, it was Wilks, Higgins, Laukkanen, Milner, Evans, Stenshorne (Reynolds having retired at the end of SS6 with a blown turbo). After SS8: Wilks, Higgins (both driving brilliantly), Laukkanen, Milner, Evans, and Kris Meeke (another excellent drive after experiencing various problems). After SS9: Wilks, Laukkanen, Higgins, Milner, Evans and Meeke. After SS10: Laukkanen, Milner, Wilks, Higgins, Evans and Meeke. And at the finish: Laukkanen, Milner, Higgins, Evans (yet another great drive - good to see him back), Meeke, and Thompson.
Unfortunately, it's impossible to give everyone a mention, although Simon Hughes (why on earth do sponsors ignore him?) in seventh; Mirco Baldacci (always pleasant and incredibly enthusiastic about the BRC) in eighth; Dougi Hall in ninth; and Steve Petch in 11th (JML taking 10th) in particular deserved one - though so did everyone else who made it to the finish. Those unfortunates who didn't included Steve Hill, Barry Johnson, Martin Stenshorne, Leon Pesticcio, Nik Elsmore, Ryan Champion, Mark l'Anson, Jeremy Nolan, Tim Mason, Ellya Gold, and Kate Heath - all victims of an extremely tough event.
Full results, notes, Championship and Nations Cup positions, and other information can be found, as always, on the official PBRC web site - www.brcweb.co.uk.
The next event is the Dumfries-based RSAC Scottish Rally, which starts on Saturday 14 June. Let's hope that all the Gateshead crews make the journey north.
Overall Classification
1 Tapio Laukkanen Miikka Anttila FIN/FIN Subaru Impreza WRC 1:38:24.3
2 Jonny Milner Nicky Beech GB/GB Toyota Corolla WRC 1:38:33.6
3 Mark Higgins Bryan Thomas GB/GB Renault Clio S1600 1:39:31.4
4 Gwyndaf Evans Howard Davies GB/GB MG ZR S1600 1:41:34.0 0:02:02.6
5 Kris Meeke Chris Patterson GB/GB Opel Corsa S1600 1:44:38.7 0:03:04.7
6 James Thompson Plug Pulleyn GB/GB Mitsubishi Evo 6 1:45:23.8
7 Simon Hughes Calvin Cooledge GB/GB Renault Clio S1600 1:45:26.7
8 Mirco Baldacci Giovanni Bernacchini I/I Fiat Punto S1600 1:45:34.8
9 Dougi Hall Steve Egglestone GB/GB Mitsubishi Evo 6 1:45:48.9
10 Jari-Matti Latvala Carl Williamson FIN/GB Ford Focus WRC 1:45:56.4
www.pirelliinternationalrally.co.uk - the official rally website
RallyingOnline.com - the premier UK rally portal
RallyGallery.com - more images from this and other rallies
Image gallery from the 2003 Pirelli International Rally
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