EDWARDS TO USE HYUNDAI i20 R5 ON WALES RALLY GB
Two-time British champion will join up with PCRS for outing
Double British Rally champion Matt Edwards says he is realistic about his chances on next month’s Wales Rally GB as he switches from a Ford Fiesta to a Hyundai i20 R5.
Edwards, who usually competes with M-sport in the domestic championship, will run in the same PCRS team as BRC rival Tom Cave. But the deal to drive a Hyundai does not represent a breakdown in his relationship with M-sport.
“Malcolm [Wilson] phoned me on the Tuesday after Galloway [Hills] and he said ‘no, absolutely you’ve got to take it, you’ve got to do what you can’,” Edwards told Motorsport News.
“He’s fully supportive, there’s no breakdown in relationship. Just after Ulster, there were some conversations about where there may be a little bit of budget available to do it [Rally GB]. And at that point I basically asked if there was anything available or what sort of deal we could do with an M-sport car [but] there wasn’t the means and the connections and things like that to make an M-sport deal happen.
“With the contacts and the people that were involved, it could only work going through the Hyundai channels and Hyundai are very supportive of the deal so it’s just the way it’s panned out. I’m not in a position where I can choose, it’s where the finance is and [where] the infrastructure comes from [that] dictates what I do.”
Edwards will not try the Hyundai until Thursday morning’s shakedown stage so his expectations ahead of the rally are measured.
“Let’s be realistic, I’m not going to have tested the car. We’re doing shakedown and that’ll be my first run in it,” he added.
“So my expectations for the event are not huge but if I’m getting closer and closer as the event goes by I’ll be happy with that.
“I want to set some top-five times in the category – [that] would be nice. Come the end of the event, if we could be fifth or sixth R5 that would be a really strong result I think.”
A bonus ball draw is open for one lucky person to ride alongside Edwards on the Rally GB shakedown stage in Gwydyr forest. The numbers range from one to 100 costing £20 a number. The draw will be made on
Monday, September 30, and entries can be made via Paypal to merallysport@btinternet.com.