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Tom Cave one step closer to WRC dream |
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Thursday, 25 September 2008 |
The
UK’s first minor international rally driver, Tom Cave, moved one step
closer to his rally dream this weekend, as he finished the Aizpute
Rally in Latvia. This means that he now has to finish just one more
rally before he will be granted his international rally license and
with it, the chance to enter his home round of the FIA World Rally
Championship, Wales Rally GB in December.
Cave
was treating this weekend’s event as a test, to fine-tune not only his
pace note system, with co-driver Gemma Price but also, the settings on
his Group N Ford Fiesta ST, the car he plans to use on Rally GB. Prior
to the event, he clearly said that performance and the result were not
the objective and that the finish was all that was important.
However,
things didn’t begin smoothly for the 16 year-old. The rally started
with a pair of superspecial stages around the host town and on the
second run through, the Fiesta began to jump out of first and second
gear, meaning he and Gemma had to complete the test in third gear only.
The
Junior Rallying technicians, who were running Tom’s car this weekend,
were able to adjust the gear linkage on the car overnight and ensure
that he had all five ratios available for the rest of the event. This
caused a slight concern though, as the team was using a
standard-specification gearbox and clutch, since the dog gearbox
originally fitted to the car was being rebuilt, ready for the final
round in Latvia.
Their
concerns proved unfounded though, as the transmission performed
perfectly for the remainder of the event. He and Price adopted a pace
which Tom conservatively estimated to be around 70% to reach the end of
the event 42nd overall and eighth in class but most importantly,
recording another finish.
Speaking
after the finish, Tom said; “It’s been a good weekend. We took the
event steadily and treated it more as a test than an actual rally, as
the objective was to get to the finish and we got the result we were
looking for.
“The
stages on the event were very nice. A good mix of technical tests as
well as fast and flowing roads. One was partially used in last year’s
Kurzeme Rally, so I knew it a little from that event which helped. The
stages cut up a little the second time around but that didn’t cause any
problems and I’m pleased that other than the linkage problem, the
standard gearbox held up well.
“We’ll be refitting the dog box for the next event, Rally Latvia, which will be the most important rally of my career so far.”
Tom
now has to complete Rally Latvia in two weeks time with no driver
errors to gain his Latvian International Rally License. This will be
the culmination of two years of competition in Latvia and will allow
him to move on to the next phase of his rally carer and the fulfilment
of a long-standing dream – the become the youngest British driver to
compete on his home round of the WRC, Wales Rally GB.
If
he finishes the event, the Latvian Automobile Federation, which governs
motorsport in the nation, will issue Tom with his International License
that will allow him to compete on Rally GB, assuming he passes his UK
driving test.
The
event begins 14 days after his 17th birthday and he has already begun
taking driving lessons on private property, in preparation for the
all-important test. If he passes, then Christmas really will come early
for the youngster, as he competes on the same stages as the world’s
best rally drivers.
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