THE BRITS ARE SET TO THRILL IN WRC2 CHALLENGE ON RALLY GB
With cave, green smith and ingram, the home fans have a lotto cheer. can they land the silverware for the UK? BY Jack ben yon
Britain’s hopes in the overall order might appear bleak in comparison to last year, but if you’re patriotic and looking for something to get behind on Wales Rally GB, look no further than WRC2.
Tom Cave, Gus Greensmith and Chris Ingram all have a very real chance of giving Skoda Motorsport’s Pontus Tidemand a run for his money in the class for R5 cars, which is usually reserved for the next crop of young talent attempting to make it to the upper echelons.
Greensmith is the only driver who has competed regularly in the series this year, and the M-sport Ford Fiesta R5 driver is third in the points. He can’t win the title but he can finish the year on a high, this being his last event of the year.
“I go to Wales and try and do the best job but last year we had a bad couple of runs, we were told we had to finish,” says Greensmith, heading to Deeside in the same car for a third straight year.
“This year I’m hoping we’ll do much better, I’d like to say I can fight at the very front. The Skodas are always incredibly quick here, we’ll have to see just how quick they are. I’ll do my best.”
The Bury driver isn’t caught up in any hype about the Brits in the class. He knows there’s more to it than just attempting to beat his countrymen.
“They’re just another driver to me, I don’t care where they are from,” he adds. “You have to beat everyone there, just because they are from the same country it makes absolutely no difference.”
One thing the Brits agree on is the strength of the entry list. While this year’s WRC2 pacesetter Jan Kopecky, 36, is absent after winning every event he’s contested this year, the rest of the frontrunners remain.
Tidemand heads the billing, last year’s winner needs victory to keep his title hopes alive. Last year’s second-place man Eric Camilli drives a Ford Fiesta R5 again despite being a Volkswagen test driver, and rounding out the podium last year was Cave, who also returns.
He took a podium in WRC2 in Finland in a Hyundai last year, switched to a Fiesta for Rally GB and then hasn’t competed in this specification this year, with a couple of outings on national events in a Subaru Impreza his only seat time.
However, he knows the car and co-driver James Morgan well, and coming off the back of two consecutive podiums he’ll be keen to make it a WRC2 hat-trick, albeit topping his previous best of third.
Speaking of podiums, that leaves Ingram, who has put together a wicked run of momentum despite missing the first half of the season through illness. A brilliant WRC2 debut in Turkey could have amounted to a win before a puncture, but he settled for third and a debut podium. But he’s under no illusions that the entry is strong and a fight for the win would be tough.
“It’s all about the bigger picture at the moment. We want to be in WRC2 next year, I need to get the miles,” says the 24-year-old. “If I can learn these rallies and learn how to set the car up on all these different rallies and different surfaces, that would be great.
“We’ll have to see how it goes. In Turkey we knew we could get a podium because we knew everyone would push too hard and there would be chaos. GB is different and there’s more competition.”
After winning the Under 27 European Rally Championship last year, Ingram has had help to get into an R5 car from the ERC. There’s not huge family wealth and it’s been a long journey to reach this point. And it’s one he says is a career highlight.
“It’s a dream come true, I never thought I would get here because of the number of times I’ve ran out of money and it’s been almost the end of my rallying,” Ingram says. “It’s good, the future is bright. We just need to keep working as hard as we can and keep improving.”
Picking the likely top Brit is tough, but having two Englishman and a Welshman in the championship closest to the WRC can only bode well for the future.
However, as Greensmith points out, there’s more than the Brits to beat.
Alongside Tidemand, there’s Finland WRC2 winner in 2017 Jari Huttunen – in a works Hyundai – Citroen works driver Stephane Lefebvre in a works Citroen C3 and of course, Tidemand is partnered by wonderkid Kalle Rovanpera.
It’s a big event for the 18-year-old Finn, who comes to a WRC2 event he’s done before after making his debut in a Ford Fiesta last year. Rapid performances this year haven’t always been met with consistency and car preservation, but he’s young and competing against a WRCready team-mate. He has shown well and expect a podium challenge at the very least.
Despite the entry list being down in WRC2 – 14 from 22 – the quality is there and anyone of 10 or so drivers can fight for the podium should they perform. Picking a winner is impossible, almost as difficult as selecting which Brit to favour. You could always be a cop out and support all three. That’s the option recommended. ■