British
junior rally driver Tom Cave will scrap his revision notes next weekend
and pick up his pace notes once again, as he returns to rallying after
the end of his GCSE exams. The 16 year-old, who elected to miss one
round of the Latvian Rally Championship to concentrate on his studies
has now completed his exams and has entered the Rally Kekava 2008 to
get his rally program back on track.
Next
weekend’s rally is a round of the Latvian RallySprint championship but
Tom will be using the event to reacquaint himself with the Latvian
stages, after an absence of six weeks. His last event, the Talsi Rally,
ended with a low-speed roll on the sixth stage and subsequent
retirement, so Cave, from Aberdovey, will be keen to get as many miles
under his belt as possible to build confidence ready for the following
weekend’s National event.
“It’s
great to have finished my exams at last. It feels like it’s been a long
time coming, with the exams themselves and the preceding revision but I
feel good to have completed them. Now I can focus on my rallying and
get back out on the stages.”
The
Ford Fiesta ST rally car which Tom uses in the National championship is
still being repaired after the roll on the Talsi Rally, so he will
revert to the car he used last year in Latvia, an MG ZR, for this
event. While quite different from the Fiesta, Tom doesn’t feel that
there will be any real difficulties in the switch.
“It’s
a little annoying to be doing the event in the ZR as obviously, I’d
prefer to be doing it in the Fiesta. However, the goal for this event
is to get a decent result and get another finish under our belt, to
count towards my international license. So in that sense, the older MG,
while not handling as well as the Fiesta, should be fine for the job.”
Tom
plans to contest the UK’s round of the FIA World Rally Championship,
Wales Rally GB, in December this year, just days after his 17th
birthday. As he will potentially only just have passed his test, he
will run with a Latvian International license and to gain that,
finishing the next few rallies and gaining as much experiences as
possible is crucial.
“The
objective for this event and the following ones is to get to the finish
and maximise experience and mileage. With the retirement on Talsi and
then missing the Cesis to concentrate on my exams, we’re already
potentially two events down on the experience I need, so finishing is
of paramount importance. I also need to rebuild my confidence after the
roll on the Talsi Rally and demonstrate that we are capable of
finishing events and not more prone to crashing. So the actual result
next weekend doesn’t bother me too much, just the finish.”
Tom
will be one of three drivers competing under the Junior Rallying
banner, the scheme to develop young British rallying talent inspired by
Tom’s rallying in Latvia last year. As a result, while he will be
concentrating on his own event, Tom will also be on hand to offer
advice to the other two Junior Rallying drivers if they need it.
Next
weekend’s event is based in the same town as Tom’s first event this
year in April; Kekava. However, while it shares the same base and name
as the previous event, the challenges are likely to be very different.
“I
don’t know the stages on this event although I am told they are more
technical than April’s Rally. But until we start the recce on Saturday,
we won’t know for sure.”
Once
this event is over, there will be an all-too-brief respite for Tom and
co-driver Gemma Price. They will contest Rally Kurzeme, the next round
of the National championship the following weekend in the Fiesta,
assuming the repairs are carried out in time. Staying in Latvia should
allow a period of recuperation but also, as Tom admits, time for work
as well.
“I’ll
be staying in Latvia between the two events, with Gemma and my father.
We’ll get a little time off but Gemma and I will work on the pace notes
and discuss various other aspects of our rallying while we’re there. We
will also start planning for next season. We’re already halfway through
this year and it’s time we began sorting-out some of the ideas and
opportunities for next year, as the end of this season will come around
very quickly.
“We’re
not thinking about Wales Rally GB just yet, as we have these two events
back-to-back. However, once the Kurzeme event is out of the way and I
hopefully have two more signatures on my license, then we can start to
think about what will be involved in that event and what we do for next
year.”
The
Kekava 2008 Rally comprises six stages run entirely on Sunday 29 June,
with the pre-event recce and scrutineering taking place on Saturday.
Crews face 60 competitive kilometres before returning to Kekava for the
finish ceremony on Sunday afternoon.
For exclusive
video of Tom's roll on the Talsi Rally and a photo sequence of the
roll, go to the gallery section of Tom's new website, at www.tomcaveracing.com.
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