DOWN THE PUB

He’s an ace co-driver “I’ve been rallying for 15 years and I started as soon as I could, mainly co-driving. I’ve driven on a couple of single-venues and a few road rallies. I’ve just bought a stage rally Vauxhall Astra to start doing a bit more next year. But I’ll still be co-driving for Matthew Robinson in his historic Escort Mk2.”

They won the Silver Fern “The Silver Fern Rally in New Zealand last month was literally mind-blowing. To understand the roads you’d have to go and have a look at it yourself. There are freshair drops and the road surfaces are incredible. The people want you there and they are so friendly. It is a superb country.”

It wasn’t easy “We went off on the third day at a very, very deceptive corner. We were the first car on the road and it was just one of those things. Shane Murland, in the second car, followed us in and I thought he was going to land on top of us. We then needed to change the engine because the cam belt had jumped when we left the road. The rally came back to us when Roger Chilman broke a halfshaft, but that’s all part of rallying. In a 40-mile rally it would have been game over.”

Maps were a challenge “Then, because we were leading by so much we felt like sitting ducks because it was ours to lose. We’d have rather been 30s behind and chasing. The maps in New Zealand are nothing like as good as we have here.”

It was a massive win “I can’t tell you what it meant to win. There was a lot of emotion: like nothing either of us has felt. It was like a weight had been lifted because we’d spent three days nursing a lead. We went through the final stage, the Motu Road, and after about eight miles Matthew said: ‘am I driving fast enough?’ You hear every rattle and Matthew had convinced himself that the propshaft was coming off!”