WRC STARS GO ON THE LOOSE AT CASTLE COMBE RALLY DAY
All the highlights from wiltshire special
Ott Tanak was having none of it. There was a Ford Fiesta WRC present before the British public for the first time at Rallyday on Saturday. And it was in his colours. And nobody else – certainly not team-mate Elfyn Evans – was getting behind the wheel.
The Estonian’s Rally Spain entry car stole the show at Castle Combe. Pre-rallyday publicity played heavily on the fact that Wiltshire would make history with the debut of this latest generation World Rally Car. It lived up to the hype.
Rallyday’s feature stage includes some of the best cars ever to grace the WRC, cars with real pedigree and genuine achievement. Admittedly, the cars aren’t pedaled with quite the same verve that Colin Mcrae, Richard Burns, Juha Kankkunen or Carlos Sainz would have brought to the party, but a Subaru Impreza WRC97 being launched off the line remains a deeply impressive spectacle.
And the site and sound of a pukka Metro 6R4 doing the same thing takes some beating.
But both were edged; both were, in fact, beaten out of sight when Tanak launched M-sport’s latest missile at the horizon. Watching among the masses, it was impossible not to get caught up in the excitement and anticipation. And the silence which descended as the car passed, shouting long and loud about just how the thing delivered.
The acceleration towards the first hairpin right was brutal, admittedly then September sun had warmed the Tarmac nicely, but the thing was still sitting astride four stone-cold Michelins.
Unfortunately, the car’s ultimate efficiency meant it barely stepped out of line at the first corner. This 2017 Fiesta’s a finely-tuned, focused, rally-winning machine – histrionics of any kind would be like going to an invitation race and expecting Usain Bolt to hop, skip and jump his way through 100 metres.
Fortunately, Evans was here for the show. He mightn’t have been able to elbow the Estonian out of the way for the real deal, but there was no doubting who got the biggest cheer of the day.
Dropping the clutch on his slightly older up-specced Fiesta R5, he turned the car into a pair of perfect doughnuts before he’d even made it out of the pit lane. A pretty perfect day just got better.
And better and better as the M-sport pair stepped back in time to get behind the wheel of a space-age, sequentialboxed Mk2 Escort each. Sideways ordered. Sideways delivered.
But what of Rallyday’s other current WRC star? What about Jari-matti Latvala, where was he? A plush Toyota hospitality unit wasn’t a bad place to start, but the Finn was nowhere to be seen. Eventually, he was located… on his hands and knees gazing at the underside of Nicky Grist’s recently acquired and deeply beautiful Toyota Celica Turbo 4WD – the very car the Welshman and Latvala’s countryman Kankkunen won the 1994 Rally of Portugal in.
For one day only, Nicky would be back alongside a Finnish rally hero as he handed J-ML the keys to his prized possession.
“Can we do doughnuts?” grinned Latvala as he slid behind the wheel.
Grist thought about it for a moment. Instinctively, his answer would be a yes, but then he remembered that bank transfer. “Go on then!” And away they went into a series of smoking spins. Back in the paddock (service area), Jari-matti was looking more than a little bashful. “I broke it…” he said. A driveshaft had failed, somewhat shattering the memory of what had, in its day, been a tank of a Group A car. It didn’t matter (admittedly, it probably did to Nicky), the sight and sound of one of world rallying’s true greats with a Finn and Welshman aboard was another unforgettable moment from Saturday.
There was plenty that won’t be forgotten from Rallyday, right from finding myself in the middle of 30-odd Imprezas all departing the M4 at junction 17 and providing the surrounding villages with a more uneven and burbly dawn chorus than most Saturdays.
The sheer diversity of cars on view is simply staggering, whatever your era or preferred generation there was something there worth looking at. M-sport’s collection of key cars from down the years at Dovenby Hall provided a very special centrepiece to the static display, while Stig Blomqvist and a Saab 96 rekindled more giant-killing memories.
Undoubtedly one of the day’s more emotional moments came just before lunch with a parade lap of some of Colin Mcrae’s most important rally cars, followed by the Series Mcrae Owners club. Once again, Stuart Blair has to take credit for ensuring the 1995 world champion remains at the heart and soul of everything Subaru.
As the sun set on Rallyday for the 17th time, the organisers were left scratching their heads – how on earth do they improve on this next time around?