Pryce and Greensmith prove a point with pace
Not for the first time, Britain proved incredibly harsh to its home drivers, as a host of Brits suffered bad luck in Wales.
Merely weeks after winning the Drive DMACK Fiesta Trophy championship, Osian Pryce started Wales Rally GB in a Ford Fiesta R5 for the third time. The Welshman is at home in the forests. Quite literally. Dyfi and Gartheiniog run just by his house.
But the event was rotten from start to finish. A software reset on the R5 – which belongs to Mads Ostberg’s Adapta outfit and was run by MH Motorsport – caused some issues leading to pop-off valve trouble.
That was partially sorted, but the ’diff wasn’t to his liking. The car was oversteering under braking.
After finally getting the car to a point where he was relatively happy, a stone through the radiator put him out of the event on Sunday after Gartheiniog. Given the car was never perfectly to his liking, his split times – which included an epic 7s taken from Lappi in Dyfi’s first 3.9 miles – proved the youngster’s pace.
Another DDFT graduate appearing in WRC2 was Gus Greensmith, but the Bury driver hadn’t competed in an R5 previously. The misty Myherin opener was a cruel launch into the deep-end of the WRC, but the 21-year-old’s pace improved through the day. However, he was hamstrung by co-driver Katrin Becker’s condition; she was vomiting and unable to read pacenotes effectively, forcing Greensmith to call the event a day mid-way through Saturday.
He returned under Rally2 on Sunday with a more in-tune Becker, to set reasonable times and finish 34th.