RALLYING AND RUGBY
Welsh rugby star Scott Williams is the unlikely owner of a new preparation firm. By Jack Benyon
It’s a cracking spot on Route 60. The cars come into a tricky square right with a drop the other side on the tricky Epynt asphalt.
Walk up and you’ve got a number of jumps, one after the other, and a professional Welsh rugby player, George North, the other side. He’s not hidden by the crests. He is well beyond six feet tall.
What’s he doing here? Apart from his frame providing the ridiculous juxtaposition of holding two tiny dogs, he’s here to watch his international rugby team-mate Scott Williams, who is the zero car on the Nicky Grist Stages Rally. It’s July.
“Ooooffffff. Fair play!” says North as Williams fires over the second bump. There’s a lift on the first, but he’s a big rugby player so we won’t hold that one against him.
Williams, yes, sorry. What’s he doing here?
It’s fair to say the Carmarthen-born man has a thirst for speed. “I’ve always loved motorsport and anything to do with an engine,” he says with a grin, transporting him back to his childhood.
Back in a dark period of his rugby career, where he picked up an injury in the World Cup in 2015, he needed something to take his mind off it. And that came in the form of setting up his own rally car preparation business.
His brother-in-law is none other than Barry Jones. If you don’t know Jones, he’s the current Irish Tarmac Historic Rally champion, and a wizard when it comes to building Ford Escort Mk2s. Whether it’s with a BDA in historic-spec, or with a Millington engine in missile-spec, Jones can build it.
“Here we are a year later and we’ve finished our first full build, the Escort Mk2,” says Williams just before the start of the July event. “It’s modern-spec, I’m really happy with how it’s turned out and we’ve had a lot of good feedback from it.”
It’s a stunning piece of machinery. As you would imagine, MN gets to see a fair few Mk2s but this one is of particular beauty. White, black and gold isn’t quite the red and black of Cossack and Roger Clark, but it’s a beautiful piece of kit. Its lines and curves are perfectly formed (that is an achievement for some Escorts...) and it’s clear not a penny has been spared in making this the best car it could possibly be.
“I’ve been there the whole time – not much of the fabricating part – but running the business and some of the finishing touches I’ve had a say on,” says Williams. “The boys have done a fantastic job. The idea was to build one for myself and use that to show off what we can do.
“Hopefully we can get some work from the car.”
That last line is interesting. Williams has had to go back to the proper day job recently as the Autumn Internationals hit full swing and Wales needs its centre, but the business isn’t slowing.
“There’s 11 or 12 in-build cars here,” adds Jones. “There’s two of us.” Bit busy then Barry? “Oh God yeah, we are!”
Jones’ title-winning car was built by Scott Williams Motorsport, and has already been sold back to Ireland, where SWM will run it next year.
Back to the event and the sponsor, and a man who has competed on a few rallies himself, Nicky Grist, is full of praise for the job Williams has done. And not for fear of being hurt by two big rugby players, as it turns out Scott, and George for that matter, are a couple of the most down to earth and nicest blokes you could bump into on a rally stage, and that’s saying something.
“I chatted to Scott about it [bringing the Escort and being the zero car driver on the event] because his car was new and he thought it was a great idea,” says Grist.
“It’s not an easy job being the course car. It’s a lot of responsibility, from a safety point of view as well. You can’t just go gung-ho. You’re running not too far in front of the leading competitors in the British Rally Championship. That’s a pressurised situation.
“But from Scott’s point of view he’s used to being under pressure and he took that and dealt with it extremely well. It’s the sign of a professional sportsman and he took it in his stride.”
After talking about arches on various Escorts for a bit too long, which is surreal in itself for someone who is a properly famous sportsman, we get down to the nitty gritty. Is he not nervous of crashing and hampering his rugby career?
“You never really think about that,” he says matter-of-factly. “I was speaking to an insurance company about insuring the rally car and they said there’s more chance of getting injured on the rugby field than in the rally car!”
After a bit more talk about arches, it’s clear this isn’t a fad for Williams to do a bit more competition. He can do that without a business of his own. As well as liking rallying, he wants to make the business successful. “We have one guy fulltime and one guy part-time,” he says. “It’s small, it’s ideal for what we have at the moment, but we have a few jobs lined up so we’re hoping it will continue to grow. There’s plenty of work.”
There’s a good chance Williams and Jones will be out competing next year. Williams certainly didn’t hang around in the zero car. ■