The benefits of a one-track mind
Where did the single-make national rallying series go?
Motorsport throws up more variables than any other form of sport and rallying especially so. Stage conditions, disparity between equipment and animals deciding they fancy playing chicken with a rally car are just some examples of how what one competitor may experience can be radically different to what their closest rival faces.
But every once in a while, it’s nice to have a leveller. Enter the one-make rally championship. Although despite the previous successes of the formula and the obvious advantages they offer, the Fiesta ST Trophy – relaunched in 2016 by the BTRDA – stands as the only genuine series left in UK national stage rallying.
Ian Arden and John Pritchard are the men responsible for keeping the candle lit. Wales Rally GB 2015 was the final year the Fiesta STS – a Group N-spec car – were eligible for homologation which got Arden to thinking. Where are these cars going to go now?
Arden explains: “I thought this is silly this, these cars are out there with nowhere to go, they’re not particularly competitive outside the championship so why don’t we put together something that’s a cheap championship and people can come and win good prizes and have some fun?
“There’s no other one-make championship in the UK at the moment and the way that we run it [is] in exactly the same way as M-sport did when it started it. It runs to homologation even though the cars are not homologated so the potential element of cheating is greatly reduced because we follow a tried and trusted set of rules.”
Speaking to various drivers who have rallied them, it’s clear that the car in question is a bit of a gem too. Producing around 160bhp through a two-litre engine, the car is fitted with a modified ECU and a dog-leg gearbox, but other than that is fairly standard, in line with the rules of Group N.
“I think it’s a great car to be fair,” says 2016 Trophy winner Cameron Davies. “It’s probably one of the best rally cars you can get out there because it’s got everything that you need essentially.
It’s got a dog ’box in it which teaches you everything; it’s got enough power and a forgiving chassis so as an all-round car it’s a great car for the money.”
Davies missed the first-ever round of the ST Trophy’s latest chapter – won by Owian Rowlands – but joined for the second and won the next five events to claim the championship a round early on the Woodpecker. He was pushed hard by George Lepley though, who got the better of him by just nine seconds on the Woodpecker. Davies’decision to contest the series proved its worth as he looked to make a step into the British Rally Championship.
“It was the work that had gone in by the organisers to get the prizes in place [that attracted me],” he admits. “Seeing as I’m always short on budget it seemed like a logical step to try and win a tyre prize to try and get me into the BRC because that’s all I wanted to do: get in the BRC one way or another. Having some stiff competition with George and pushing that car to its limit obviously it does help with going forward [too], especially with the close competition in BRC.”
Both Davies and Lepley were invited to a DMACK shootout at the end of 2016 courtesy of their performances which Lepley believes helped give both himself and the ST Trophy a boost in credibility.
“Jon Armstrong, Nicolas Ciamin; those sort of people went,” Lepley recalls. “To cut a long story short, Ciamin won the shootout and Cameron and I were top three out of probably about 10 of us. Off the back of it, it put the profile of the STS up. We did try and do the BRC after the ST Trophy as it is sort of the perfect stepping stone, introducing yourself to forest rallying.”
Sam Bilham – who took the 2017 title – mirrored Lepley in using the series to learn the art of forest rally driving. He agrees that it was invaluable in his development.
“Everyone’s in the same car so you don’t get much better than a one-make championship, particularly as a young driver because you need something to gauge yourself on,” Bilham says. “When you step into senior rallying you don’t know where to judge yourself. You can do really well in a junior championship and you go into senior rallying and it’s very different so you can suddenly be trailing around at the back.”
Finlay Retson was another to star in the ST Trophy, competing in the series instead of his native Scotland as soon as he turned 17. He reckons that half-year in 2017 spent driving the ST was extremely helpful for his progression into R2 machinery. David Kelly adopted a similar tactic, using the STS last year before jumping into the Juniot BRC this term.
“I’m a big fan of the one-make stuff as well and it really shows [who] the best driver [is],” Retson says. “We always had a plan where we’d do maybe one-and-ahalf years in the ST first and try and win it in the second year because we knew I wasn’t going to get a full season just with the way my birthday landed in 2017. But I only got half a season in the car as the R2 1600 came up for sale. At that point I wasn’t say at the limit of the ST but we won the Woodpecker Rally, my third event, so I think that kind of opened dad’s eyes that we needed to get into something quicker.”
Alongside Davies and Bilham, James Giddings and Zak Hughes stand as the other two ST Trophy victors, claiming the 2018 and ’19 championships respectively. This season was to be the fifth in the ST Trophy’s new guise but like the rest of the global motorsport calendar, the season currently hangs in the balance as solutions to combat the coronavirus pandemic are sought.
Brendan Leonard claimed the spoils on the Cambrian with Jonathan Sproat picking up victory on the Malcolm Wilson before the season was paused. Rally Tendring & Clacton, the Scottish Rally, the Nicky Grist Stages and the Mewla Rally were to follow with a double-header on the Pokerstars Rally on the Isle of Man set to conclude the season. It’s a properly varied calendar that for the first time ever
takes the crews onto asphalt, following the BTRDAMIXED Surface Challenge schedule.
“I’ve always been an advocate of mixed surface-type events,” Arden explains. “If you put on a single-make championship the overall winner should be able to drive on all surfaces, so it was always the intention to go mixed surface, it just took probably longer than what we anticipated to put it down that route and obviously yes there’s the element of a refresh with it.”
This evolution extends beyond the calendar too. While the Mk6 Ford Fiesta ST is still going strong, the youngest examples are 12 years old now so plausible replacements are being considered for the future.
“We have talked about it and considered other options,” Arden adds. “Whether we could for instance bring in the 1600 R2 cars as a viable stablemate for the STS. We’re constantly looking at these sort of things to try and keep things fresh.”
One thing is for sure though: as long as the ST Trophy is around, the next crop of talent will continue to be prepped for a successful career in the future.
“The prices are fairly cheap and you can just go out there and compete with somebody and the best man wins,” Arden concludes. “And that’s how it should be.”