FOUR ON THE BOUNCE THE AIM FOR MELLORS WITH PROTON
Confidence is high ahead of next Iriz R5 outing on Grizedale Stages in December
Ollie Mellors has admitted that a hat-trick of wins with his Proton
Iriz R5 means he has never felt more confident during his rallying career as he looks to take a fourth win on the bounce next month.
Mellors has won the Woodpecker and Trackrod rallies in the BTRDA as well as the Malton Forest Rally over the last two-and-a-half months and has a chance to make it four wins from four on next month’s Grizedale Stages.
“We’ve been doing a lot of work on the car, [so] it’s nice to see that we are going in the right direction,” Mellors told MN.
“I’ve not been doing so much [myself ] over the last couple of years. I have been doing quite a lot of testing, but testing is completely different to competition so it’s nice to be able to go out there and actually compete against people and brush up on some of my rusty skills.
“I feel as relaxed and as confident as I’ve ever been but at the same time the car’s working so well. I don’t feel like
I’m having to push the limits whereas in the Super 2000 car I was always trying to push that extra little bit and that’s why I was having some mistakes and pushing the car beyond what it was maybe capable of doing.
“This car, we’re coming back from an event, we’re cleaning it off, doing a spanner check and going to the next event. We’re not doing anything on it at all.”
The R5 car has been developed by Mellors Elliot Motorsport with a number of drivers already buying examples of the machine, including Eugene Donnelly and Theo Bengry, with more interested ahead of next season as Mellors continues to showcase its capabilities.
“Performance-wise the car is pretty much where it is and we’re happy with it. We’re fairly confident it’s as quick if not quicker than any other R5 car,” Mellors added. “We’ve got a few things in the pipeline and we’re working with Proton to try and put those ideas into motion but nothing that we can stand up and say ‘this is what we’re doing next year’.”