RALLY CHAMPION

Alexstoneisbritain’sbestrallychampionof2017–here’swhy.by Jackbenyon THEMAKINGOFA

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’m only human, after all. I’m only human, after all.”

It’s a fitting jingle, you might recognise as the hit single by Rag’n’bone Man. But not one you expect to come blaring from a rally car, primed and less than 30-seconds from the start.

Inside are two people best described as ‘characters’. John Stone is the driver, a regular threat for rally wins on single-venue rallies all over the country. And in the co-driver’s seat is his son, Alex. He’s got Down’s syndrome, and is merely minutes away from becoming the Three Sisters Challenge co-drivers’ champion.

It’s an epic story. Partnering John for the three events in the championship based at the Three Sisters Circuit in Wigan, the pair won all three outings in their Ford Fiesta S2500 Millington. Now, if only the crew’s singing sounded as good as the Fiesta…

“He loves the old musical stuff,” says John. “He can’t sing for peanuts, but he’ll sing along to everything. Oliver Twist, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, he loves the old show tunes. We’ve got him big into Norman Wisdom recently. He’s funny and he’s great company.”

Alex is the specimen of physical health, his main drawback comes in his poor communication. From a sporting aspect, John has to do the navigating alone. But that’s not the story here. The fact is that Alex is blazing a trail for people with Down’s syndrome. They can have fun and compete in motorsport just like everybody else can.

“If I thought he wasn’t enjoying it for one minute, we’d stop. He loves it and I just want him to enjoy life,” says John.

“I see some of the neighbours out walking the dogs or whatever and the most exciting thing they do is go on holiday in a motorhome or something

hen you’re barrelrolling into a gravel trap at upwards of 100mph, and your head pops out of the window, it doesn’t normally lead to good things. Andrew Bourke was incredibly lucky: in the shortterm it gave him just bruises, and in the long-term it helped deliver a championship title.

The weekend before the huge crash at Brands Hatch’s Paddock Hill Bend in 2016, Bourke had just taken his best finish of third in his class in the British Racing and Sports Car Club’s Alfa Romeo Championship. Then the crash changed everything.

“I had no brakes,” explains Bourke. “As I went to turn in there was a car there; I clipped the car and that sent me into a roll. It was at about 120mph and a very violent roll. I was shaken and had a couple of bruises, but that was about it luckily.”

Explaining why his head went through the window, he adds: “Usually you have a seat mount that’s drilled straight through the floor. My car had a spacer on the right-hand side. That gave way, so there was space between the seat and the floor. It caved in during the crash and pushed me [to the] right, and my head [went] out of the window.”

The car was destroyed, fit only for scrap, and after a check-up at the infield care centre Bourke was released and eager to race again.

He considered hiring a car, but with only a few races left in the season, he elected to defer.

That didn’t stop him making some bold claims in jest with his fellow racers. Living close to Corby, Bourke visited the championship’s Rockingham round following his crash, and afterwards the beer was flowing.

“I said to them, ‘Next year I’m going to win the championship, I’m going to smash every lap record,” says Bourke, amused by the irony of the previously hollow threat.

“I got one lap record at Cadwell Park, but I took the championship and that was the main thing.”

It was an impressive feat in only his fourth year of racing, which has all been done in the Alfa Championship. The 31-year-old runs a printing business, the recent success of which allowed him to get started in motorsport in 2014.

For 2017, the big change was a new car, a 156 JTD in the Twin Spark class, replacing the GTV, and a new team in Scuderia Bianco. He finished outside the top six only once, with a retirement and a non-start on his record after he was clipped into the barriers while fighting for the lead at the penultimate round at Mallory Park in the first race of the weekend. The car wasn’t in any state to start race two. Before that, he’d been on a run, finishing on the podium in class for four consecutive rounds at Cadwell, Rockingham, Snetterton and Brands Hatch.

When asked about how it felt getting back into a competition car after rolling at 100mph-plus, Bourke says: “It was tough. Coming into the first race weekend at Oulton Park it was nerve-racking.”

But the perfect tonic for a driver after a big crash is a strong result: “That first race back was really good, we finished second in the first round and then we got our first [class] win after that, so it was good to see we were still progressing.”

The return to Brands Hatch came six events into an eight-round calendar. The previous five meetings went some way to helping with the nerves, but nothing can quite prepare a driver for returning to that particular corner.

“There was always nerves there,” says Bourke. “I had done a test beforehand. I was braking far too early in the test! Slowly the confidence came back.

“I think for everyone it’s a tricky corner. It’s still fun though.”

Lifting the spectre hovering over you after a crash like that is always difficult, but a third and a second in class helped. Winning the championship at the end of the year of course did the rest. ■