COLIN CLARK
“Australia was a different story for hero Evans”
Two years ago Elfyn Evans went home from Australia pretty much a broken man.
Let’s face it, in 2015, our Welsh hero was terrible Down Under. Last week, on the same roads, he was unrecognisable from the troubled soul who departed Coffs Harbour with a ninth place tucked under his arm. And only two seventhfastest stage times to brag about.
I’ll be honest, for me, Evans was finished after that 2015 event. The real concern was that he couldn’t understand what had gone wrong. He’d had absolutely no confidence in the Ford Fiesta RS WRC beneath him. On roads where you thread the thing between the trees on ballbearings at 100mph, you need total faith.
Evans bounced back with a stunning second in Corsica at the next round, but even that looked to not have truly rescued him from despair.
Malcolm Wilson dropped him and put him on the British Rally Championship naughty step.
It worked. Evans would probably argue that he would have made the improvement anyway, but I’m not so sure. Absence certainly made Elfyn’s heart grow fonder for the WRC.
We’ve seen him and Dan [Barritt] drive some superb rallies this season, not least at home where they bossed Rally GB. But Australia was always going to be a real test for the British pair.
Last week was only their third start in Coffs, but it was a real and genuine test of their resolve. They missed the recce as well as the rally last season, so they had to put new notes together for plenty of stages – but it was the psychological blow this one dealt them last time out that would make for the biggest hurdle. They cleared it. By miles.
Not that you’d know it from the stage times. Once again, there wasn’t a hint of a scratch in the sunshine, but it was nothing to do with Elfyn this time. The DMACKS which had done him so proud in Wales, were found wanting in New South Wales. The hard was too hard and the soft too soft. But we knew that was going to happen.
The impressive part about the operation was the way Evans dealt with it. He wasn’t phased, he was as relaxed deflecting the inevitable questions about the tyres as he was with the situation in general.
He stayed calm and then, out of nowhere, an opportunity presented itself on Sunday morning when the rain came. And Evans was in like a shot. Quickest on the opener and third fastest through Bucca. Brilliant. Evans came back to Australia and faced down these roads which came close to costing him his career two years ago. As far as I can see, that completes the rebuild and reboot of the Welshman.
He goes into the off season on the back of a win and a fifth place on his bogey event. It’s going to be a good Christmas in Dolgellau. And potentially an even better new year.