Victory for rally duo

Victory on the Toddsleap.co.uk Ulster Rally was enough for Williams, a member of Kirkby Lonsdale Motor Club, to take the prestigious title.

He made his debut on the international rallying scene in March and has been competing alongside Welshman John Pritchard in his Co-Part Finder-backed Ford Fiesta ST.

After securing podiums in all three of the opening rounds to the championship, the pair secured second place in the points standings and were brimming with confidence before the SportChallenge headed for its first asphalt round, the Jim Clark International Rally, based in the Scottish Borders town of Kelso.

Before the start of the event, Williams knew one of his title rivals, Richard Millenar wouldn’t be able to start the event meaning only a finish was necessary to steal the overall lead.

However, the KC Autos backed crew endured a poor start to the event after a time consuming spin on the very first corner of the rally and numerous handling problems throughout.

Despite this, the duo found themselves lying fifth overall but knew that they were some distance off the pace.

Fortunately, the result was all that was needed to elevate Williams to the top of the standings to take the lead of the championship with only two rounds left.

Williams went on to say after the Jim Clark, ‘We struggled on Friday evening to get heat into the rear tyres and John had little confidence in the car’s handling.

We made some changes overnight that improved the car and times dramatically, but unfortunately the damage had already been done.

Williams also went on to explain ‘It’s a great feeling to be leading the championship, however, the championship is out of my hands for now.

The championship regulations have forced us to choose between two events, Rally Isle of Man and Ulster Rally Northern Ireland respectively.

Both events contain two individual counting rounds within them with day one counting as the first rally and day two counting as the second.

Unfortunately, Richard has picked the Isle of Man, and with he being the only one in the Challenge opting for this event, two finishes would be enough for him to win the championship and there’s nothing we can do to stop it.

I’ll have to watch the events on the Isle of Man unfold behind the computer screen!

Williams knew only one outcome would see his championship hopes stay alive, a non finish from Millenar in the Isle of Man.

Fortunately for Williams, a driveshaft failure forced his rival into retirement on the first day of Rally Isle of Man, and although the car could be repaired in time for the start of the second day, Millenar’s finish was still enough to give the Staffordshire University student a sniff of the championship when he travelled to Antrim four weeks later.

However, Millenar’s non finish hadn’t just given Williams a chance at the title, it had also given his other rival, Sara Price a chance, and with Price also travelling to the Northern Irish event, it would mean Williams would have to battle for every second over the asphalt roads that have become notorious for their bumpy nature.

The first Challenge Rally of Northern Ireland took the crews over five stages, including two runs over the fearsome Torr Head stage, the second run would be the last test of the rally.

Not only would it decide the day’s standings, but it was also to be held in complete darkness adding to its formidability. Williams and driver Pritchard settled into their pace on the opening nine mile Glendun test, but found themselves a distant thirteen seconds from the fastest time of Price.

This poor time clearly fired up the Co-Part Finder backed crew and duly set about attacking the first run over Torr Head.

The duo stopped the clocks in the fastest time, and shaved a second off Price’s lead meaning they held second overall with a deficit of twelve seconds to make up over the remaining twenty five miles of evening stages.

The third stage of the event saw the pairing pick up where they left off on Torr Head, and they set their second consecutive fastest time, this time over the seven-mile Knockboy test in an attempt to reel in the leading Price.

Price though, failed to emerge from the stage after rolling, causing considerable damage meaning she would take no further part in the either of the weekends rallies.

However Pritchard and Williams were still unaware of Price’s accident as darkness fell and unknowingly found themselves holding the outright lead in the event.

The KC Autos backed crew set another poor time over the same stage they’d failed to deliver on earlier in the afternoon and found their lead had now been slashed to just twenty two seconds.

Both Pritchard and Williams now knew of Price’s demise and that all that was required of them was to finish the second run over the nine miles of torturous tarmac that made up Torr Head.

The crew didn’t quite manage to match their blistering pace on their earlier run, but took a cautious approach to ensure the result, and set a second fastest time, yet nothing could prepare neither Pritchard or Williams for what they would find as they crossed the finishing line.

Second placed overall driver, Jamie Brown had taken back 21.7 seconds meaning Pritchard and Williams had won, but by 0.3 seconds!

Williams said on Friday evening, ‘I’m slightly lost for words!

It’s all so unexpected, never did I think I’d achieve an outright rally win this year, especially not here where experience of the roads counts for a lot.

Jamie proved that by his performance over the last two stages tonight as he competed here last year.

And to take my first outright win by such a small margin is quite incredible. I can’t believe it!

It’s unfortunate that Sara dropped out, we were looking forward to a good battle this evening, but it’s certainly made things easier in the championship.

We need to go back to the hotel and do some sums on the championship points. We still don’t know if Sara will have the car repaired in time to start tomorrow, so we’ll see.’ With twenty points secured, and still unknowing if Price’s car would be repaired in time, the young rising star knew that the championship was as good as his, so long as he finished Saturday’s rally.

Saturday’s rally was made up of four stages all run once, and Pritchard and Williams set to work with a cautious approach on the opening two stages of the morning, but the handling problems that dogged the pair for much of the Jim Clark Rally returned on the opening nine mile Tardree stage and found themselves languishing some fourteen seconds off the pace.

After making a slight alteration to the suspension settings before entering the six mile Langford Lodge stage the crew managed to set second fastest time and closed the gap on the leaders heading to the midday service still holding fourth.

At twelve and a half miles, the third stage of Saturday was the longest stage of the event, and after a cautious start, the duo changed their style and went on the attack.

It paid off, and the crew duly took their third stage win of the weekend, promoting them into the lead by even less than they had won by on Friday evening, a mere 0.2 seconds.

Unfortunately neither member of the crew was aware of this fact and entered the last stage of the event with a slightly more cautious approach to ensure the championship victory.

Williams and Pritchard managed to set a second fastest stage time, to finish the event, but lost out on their second outright victory of the weekend by just five seconds.

However Williams smile as he crossed the finishing line told it all, he’d managed to claim the KickEnergy Fiesta SportChallenge Co-Drivers title at his first attempt.