BRITS AIM FOR GLORY

EVANS MEEKE

This season hasn’t been an easy one for you and I, has it? Start of the year, two Brits in box seats and back to the good old days of the World Rally Championship. For Mcrae and Burns, read Meeke and Evans. Happy days. Let the wins roll in.

Wins? There’ve been two of them. Could have been three: give Evans one second and he’d have taken a first in Argentina.

But there’s also been the odd rock and the odd roll from Citroen driver Meeke. Not to mention the occasional hard place for M-sport’s Evans. In short, Brit-watching so far this year hasn’t been dissimilar to taking a ride on the Kingda Ka roller coaster. Or hanging out with Stephen Fry.

We’ve been from the highest of highs to Meeke being dropped for Poland, from second in Finland to nowhere in Spain for Evans.

For Meeke, Spain brought redemption. And that second win.

And now to Wales. Home. Home-ish for Meeke. And some refuge from what, at times, has been a brutal season.

“Coming to Wales on the back of a win in Spain is great,” says Meeke. “It’s good for the confidence, for me, for Paul [Nagle] and the whole team. There’s no denying this has been a hard year and that last result was very welcome. Listen, I’ve made too many mistakes this year and we’ve had some issues with the car, but none of those issues are insurmountable. A lot’s been made of this whole technical side of the car, but fundamentally we have a good car which needs some work and some refining in a few areas.”

For Evans, the reverse is the case. There’s no denying the pedigree and pace of M-sport’s Ford Fiesta WRC. It’s the car that’s won the most rallies this season and it’s the car that looks set to land the Cumbrian team its first world title in 10 years in Wales this week.

“There’s no doubting the ability of this car,” says Evans. “It’s fantastic – we’ve seen that all year.”

As has been the case for much of the season, you sense a ‘but’ coming at the end of most sentences from the outgoing British Rally champion. And that sentence ends with a question mark, and that question mark is centred on the four corners of his Fiesta: the DMACK tyres.

Evans is far too professional to be caught pointing the finger, but you only have to look at the consistency of his inconsistency. That might sound odd, but in specific conditions, Evans is miles away and in another set of conditions, he’s bang on the pace. Take the season opener in Monte Carlo as a case in point. Day one brought zero grip on the ice and he struggled to break into the top 10 times. Fast forward 24 hours to the end of the bone-dry Breziers stage and it’s a different story. Evans has just clocked his third scratch of the day’s five stages and he’s flying.

Round one has basically been his entire year in microcosm.

DMACK decided to bring in a new tyre for the final three rallies of the season, a new compound and construction gravel tyre. In reality, the new boots were aimed squarely at Rally GB; the soft is that bit softer than Michelin and the pattern that bit more open. If it’s wet, wet, wet in Wales, this could make the difference. But if the surface cleans on a dry second run, there’s a good chance the blocks will start to move – and a lack of precision on some of these super-quick stages is the last thing a driver wants.

“Let’s wait and see what the weather does,” says Evans. “I think it’s fair to say our chances are pretty dependant on the weather. But still, it’s home and that’s a really nice feeling. I’ve got to be honest, it is pretty surreal at times to be driving the same World Rally Car so close to my house. The week after the event, I’ll likely be coming down the same road to go and buy a loaf of bread or something…”

Twelve months ago, Evans had been dropped from M-sport’s frontline team and he spent his home round of the championship on the sidelines.

“The weather played an important role in my decision on last year’s Rally GB,” he says, “but that decision was whether or not to go out and spectate! I did go and watch. I actually worked as one of the weather crews, feeding information back to the team about temperatures and road conditions, that kind of thing – but I can honestly say, missing last year’s [Rally GB] was one of the hardest parts of my career.”

The Irish Sea might be in the way of Meeke and his Dungannon home in Northern Ireland, but he’ll still feel the warmth of the welcome in Wales this week.

“I’ve always said the same: coming to Wales does feel like home to me,” he says. “I competed in Wales a lot in my early career, my first event was there and I love the roads, the conditions, the fans and the atmosphere. There’s something special there and coming into Wales on the back of the win gives us a lift that’s for sure. But at the same time we have to remember nothing has changed overnight. There’s still work to do and, like Elfyn’s said, we’ll be pretty reliant on the weather.”

The nature of the roads on Britain’s round of the world championship are such that, if it’s a typically damp autumn (the kind already underpinned by a typically damp summer…), they will offer the best grip at the front of the field. Twelve-hundred kilos of World Rally Car thundering down the stage tends to stir the surface, soften it and bring the mud to the top. Five or six cars in and the edge has definitely gone. Evans is sixth down the road on day one, and Meeke is ninth.

“When you come out and see the home support in Wales, it definitely gives you a lift,” says Meeke. “When we come through Irish Corner in Dyfnant it’s incredible to see the fireworks, you can almost hear the klaxons and the atmosphere is amazing, really amazing. You feel it. And that can raise your level again. But after that corner, you’re away and into a dark forest again and you have to contain everything. As soon as you start over-driving, you start losing time. You start to slide wide, you push harder, you slide wider. It’s a vicious circle.”

Evans agrees and adds: “GB and the RAC before it had this reputation for being the sort of rally where you took it by the scruff of the neck and forced the car down the road and really pushed as hard as it would go. You can’t do that. Now it’s the same as every rally: you have to be technically perfect in the way you drive.”

That probably doesn’t sound very exciting. Don’t worry it will be.

“Oh, it will be,” says Evans. “These new cars are incredible. They’re more spectacular, noisier, better to look at and so enjoyable to drive for us. And, from the reception they’ve had around the world so far this season, they’re pretty special to watch out on the stages too.”

Neither Meeke or Evans is interested in dwelling on what might have been this season. Both are in superb form ahead of this week’s penultimate round of the world championship season. Meeke brushes aside concerns that his pre-event test took place in France and not Wales, pointing out that there’s an area of south-west France which is very similar to the rolling hills of mid-wales. He’s learned that certain things – usually budget-related – aren’t going to change and fighting against them is nothing but a waste of energy.

Meeke will push this week, make no mistake about it, he’ll leave nothing in the locker, but at the same time he knows where his and the car’s limits are, and risking everything for a corner of glory’s not what he’s about. It’s bigger picture time and that bigger picture is about further refining the C3 WRC in changeable conditions. In Poland this year – with weather similar to what we can expect in Wales – the Citroen was shocking. There have been improvements since then. But this isn’t about eureka moments.

“We know where we are,” says Meeke quietly. “We know where we’re strong and where we need to work. Just because this is Wales, it doesn’t change anything. If everything comes together we’ve seen the car can be quick, let’s just see what we get this week.”

So speaks the man who’s been through the wringer this season. Meeke remains at the forefront of Citroen’s plans next year and he’s well aware that miles and experience on a new car’s first outing at an event are just as important as stage wins and outright glory.

For Evans, the position is slightly different. Not for him the pressures of leading a team. Instead, he’s got the joker up his sleeve. Statistically, he’s got the best car out there under him and, if the stars align, he could have a peach of a tyre as well.

So, forget the trials and tribulations of the season so far. Focus on Wales this week. The Brits are back and they’re heading in the right direction. ■