Molly's Blog - Trackrod Rally Yorkshire

Two countries and two rallies in two weeks! An international rally in the UK and then my first ever tarmac rally in Tasmania, so it has been a pretty full month for me. At the same time it has been absolutely incredible and includes my best rallying experiences to date.

I was really keen to compete in the one-make Suzuki Swift Sport Cup series, (which runs in the British Rally Championship), as I wanted to be able to benchmark myself against drivers in the same machinery. With help from the UK’s Suzuki Swift Sport Cup manager, Ian Phillipson, and many others, I put together a plan to compete in the Trackrod International Rally Yorkshire. 

I worked three jobs to save enough money, which meant 4.30am starts and finishing late most nights. At least when I got home late England was awake so I could communicate with them to organize all the logistics. After a tough few months, by the time I made it to the airport, I couldn’t decide if I was excited because I was going to do a rally in England or if I was just looking forward to 23 hours sleep!

I arrived in London at 6am on a Sunday morning. After spending some time a little lost and trying to work out the cheapest way to get around, I hopped on a train heading to Milton Keynes. Trying to save every penny I had, I couldn’t believe how expensive the transport was. I had to swap trains a few times, which was fun carrying all my luggage and a helmet bag up and down flights of steps in the subway. Most of the Englishmen were very nice and kept offering to help me lift my bags.

After arriving in Milton Keynes, which is where Monster Sport Europe (MSE) is based, I spent the afternoon wandering around and getting familiar with the town (which included finding an English lolly shop!) Still tired, I headed back to my hotel and went to bed. The only problem was I woke up five hours later and it was only 7pm!!

Monday morning I picked up my recce car (a left hand drive Peugeot 106) from the ‘MIRA’ complex in Nuneaton. It is a 900 acre venue which is used by various manufacturers as a vehicle safety and test venue (as well as for various Top Gear stunts). I then spent the trip back to Milton Keynes adjusting to driving on the other side of the car as I headed to MSE to meet the team.

I arrived a bit nervous, but I was looking forward to seeing the workshop, the cars and meeting the team.  I had met a few of the crew previously over at Rally NZ, where they were working with the Suzuki WRC team. The workshop was absolutely full of Suzuki Swifts (including some not so good looking ones which were left over from a Top Gear ‘soccer’ match). MSE were in charge of preparing six of the eight Suzukis that would be competing on the weekend.

I was really impressed with how professional the whole set up was and the team was very welcoming. I had a good look over the car and I kept having to pinch myself to believe I was really there.

Tuesday I went back to the workshop to help the guys get everything ready for our test in the afternoon. The test venue was about 30 minutes away at an old airfield. It was a tight track used for a British Rally school. It had a concrete surface with gravel over the top and due to morning rain it was quite slippery where the gravel had been washed away. The track was marked out with tyres and was quite narrow in places, which was perfect for my first drive so that I could work out where the right hand wheel was!  I have to admit there were a couple of marks on the front spoiler by the end of the test……a good introduction to the team!

It was a relief to have driven the car and I started to feel comfortable. We headed back to the workshop and after buffing out the tyre marks (!) we went out to dinner in a nearby town – where I was told some wild WRC stories!

Wednesday I headed to the small town of Pickering, where the rally was based. It was about a three hour trip, however took a bit longer after my stop off at Silverstone Raceway and the historic town of York. I think I spent too much time at Silverstone, because nearly everything was closed by the time I got to York. I was pretty impressed though with the castle ruins right in the middle of the town! Not something you see everyday at home.

Thursday was Shakedown and I was looking forward to driving the car in the forest. I also got to meet some of the other Suzuki competitors, one of whom I had met at the snow and ice school in Norway in 2007 (He’s the Norwegian Junior champion) – small world!

The track was fairly fast with a few slower corners so it was a good place to get a feel for the car. I began to feel confident in the car and my times began to show that. I had British Rallycross Champion, Nick Jones, sitting in the car with me, who would be one of my mechanics for the weekend. He also works for the Suzuki WRC team, so it was great to have the input of someone with that experience.

I was feeling happy with the test and more comfortable with the car by the time we headed back to the hotel for dinner. This would also be the first time that I met Jemma Bellingham, who would be my co-driver for the weekend. Ryan Champion, (former BRC Mitsubishi Driver and previous Rally Yorkshire winner), also came to dinner so it was great to have a chat with him about the rally, roads etc. Jemma was very friendly and welcoming, so it was a relief that it was all working out!

Friday morning was an early start as we headed out to recce – a nice scenic drive through the English countryside! Recce was done in convoy, which actually went a lot better than I was expecting it to. The majority of the field were running on bought notes and I received a lot of questions about my recce number stickers I had all over my dashboard.

The roads were very fast with lots of square corners at the end of long straights. There were a few faster flowing stages also, so I was looking forward to them. To keep the average speed down, there were a lot of narrow chicanes, some of them built out of the earth banks.

Finally….Rally Day! The nerves kicked in, but also the excitement of driving on roads I had only seen on television, and on the other side of the world. The first stage I took fairly easy to make sure everything was all in order and the notes were working OK, which they were. The second stage, we were ready to pick up the pace, but only got 1km into the 25km stage when we got a flat in a rough chicane. The narrow roads meant it was hard to find somewhere to pull over to the change the tyre. When we finally did pull over, changed the flat and got going again, we got stuck behind another competitor. Again, the narrow roads meant it took what felt like forever to find an area wide enough to be able to pass them! We dropped seven minutes – which was not a great start to the rally.

A quick service and we had nothing to lose but to pick up the pace and set some good stage times. We set 3rd fastest on the next couple and then moved to 2nd fastest times, which was an encouraging way to spend the day after a frustrating start. I really enjoyed the more flowing roads and was really happy with the handling and stability of the car. Jemma and I worked really well together and she did a great job.

I was really impressed with the reliability of the car, and apart from the puncture, we had no real issues all day. It was pretty surreal pulling into the service park with a line of Suzukis, all with matching tents, etc – it felt like I was in a factory team!

Despite losing a podium position as a result of the flat, I was happy to have ventured across the world and be able to set competitive times in an unfamiliar left hand drive car. It was an unreal experience and one that I will not forget in a very long time.

I just want to say again, thank you to Jemma for an awesome co-driving job, Bert and Steve for a great job keeping the car perfect during the rally, and Alan, Ian Phillipson, Ian Robinson, Nicky, Andrew, Lee and Chubs – really appreciate all you did to make my trip as fantastic as it was!

Molly