Brendan's Blog - Rally Portugal review

Brendan's Blog - Rally Portugal review

With Rally Portugal over and done, I can’t believe how quickly it’s all come about and past by. The rally itself was totally different to any rally I had done before. Having competed in Rally New Caledonia last year and getting to experience rallying in another country, the language barriers and different terrain still hadn’t prepared me for what Portugal had to offer.

Being a part of a whole new program, the WRC Academy was always going to be tough as it’s a learning phase for the whole team in the mechanics, engineers, Pod leaders, management and especially myself, being my first rally in Europe and my second ever WRC event.

The Fiesta R2 cars built by M-Sport had the full options kit and have had two years of development in these types of events but they had never had competition this strong before. Our tyres, supplied by Pirelli, were all K4’s (mediums) and we were each allocated 18 for the event to pick and choose however we wanted to strategise them throughout the 280 km of Special Stages.

Starting with a team meeting Monday night, we were briefed on the rally ahead, what to expect, what was expected of us and how to get the most out of the event. We all wanted to win but everyone is at different levels so the approach of all 19 crews would be different. Ken Block was the guest speaker for the evening and he allowed us to ask as many questions on his career so far and his approach to rallying. It was interesting as he’s been on both sides of the table as far as sponsorship goes. With going from selecting the athletes that his company DC shoes would sponsor, to being the athlete securing the budget from those sorts of companies to allow him to race, he knows both sides.

With the WRC Academy only competing Thursday, Friday and Saturday of the rally and not Sunday, recce was a bit shorter with Tuesday only needed to write notes for three different stages and Wednesday the same combination of three stages but then testing in the afternoon. The stages were all over 20 km in distance, though, so it was still a long haul and the different terrain I experienced and the technical difficulty amongst the stages was really incredible. You can watch all the in-car footage  in the world but until you see it in the flesh it’s difficult to get a true picture of what to expect. The stages are generally a hard bedrock surface with fast, narrow, twisty, hilly and unpredictable crests. The amount of sharp crests with turns on or over them, and also long crests with corners that tighten and narrow within several metres, was startling and this made for a challenging recce.

Once recce was done I got a chance to test the car for the first time. The test stage simulated the rally perfectly and it was nice to get a feeling for the car before my first stage. The tyres we were testing on were part of your 18 allocated so I only did three runs through the 7 km stage as I would need the most out of all my tyres throughout the event. With the car getting through its shakedown with flying colours, it was back to the motel to get set for the rally.

Thursday was an early rise with SS1 not being till the afternoon but it was in the city of Lisbon some 3.5 hours’ bus ride away. The whole WRC Academy was loaded up and set off for the trip with the cars being transported to Lisbon on a car carrier. The official launch for the     WRC Academy was held just before the rally start with world media and invited guests all attending, eager to see all the teams together and ready for our first event. It was then to the pre-event press conference and a photo shoot for wrc.com and the next WRC video game.

The Super Special Stage was only 3 km in length but full of jumps, tight corners and a slippy mix of tarmac and cobblestones designed to wow the 40,000 strong crowd. We had a really good run through the stage with third fastest time and were only .7 seconds off the lead, but this was only the start of a massive rally ahead.

Friday was straight into the true Portugal roads with three stages then service and the same three repeated in the afternoon. We got through the first stage with a clean run and a solid time. SS3 was faster at the beginning but tighter towards the end. We got a rear right puncture only a couple of kilometres into the stage so had to stop and change it, losing around four minutes by stage end. We were now last so had to really put our heads down and work hard to get back some time and try to climb back into the points that start at tenth position.

On Stage 4 I was back into the swing of it all but was still taking a cautious approach with such rocky and sometimes very rough stages. We improved more and more throughout the day. We were lucky on the last stage as, when we went around the last corner, a bolt come out of the front left control arm and instantly allowed the wheel to move forward and backwards. We finished day 1 in 11th outright and 5:55.4 minutes behind the leading Academy team.

Saturday was day 2 and brought a fresh lot of stages to tackle. The first stage, SS8, was fast and flowing but became narrow and twisty with more of a clay surface than the other stages. I enjoyed the stage with having learnt lots about the car the previous day and did a time quick enough to move us up a place on the results. The next two stages were very rough and would be even worse the next time around after the WRC cars had come through again. By midday service we were up to sixth and 6:00.3 minutes behind. The rough roads and a few incidents had allowed us to capitalise on our position.

After a quick service and fitting my two last new tyres, we headed off to do the same loop again. The stages were, as I had predicted, much rougher than the first pass and just getting a clean run through was vital. We worked hard between stages swapping our tyres around to get the best out of what we had left. By SS13, the last stage, we were up to fifth and the sun was starting to set. We had a good clean run and were only 1.7 seconds off wining the stage, moving us up to fourth by the rally’s end.  It was a result I never thought would be possible after a terrible start.

A big thanks to everyone who helped us out for the rally - our new team, Pirelli, and all my sponsors. Hopefully we can keep having a successful year and improve each event and win the amazing prize at the end!

I’m down in Tassie now preparing for Targa Tasmania with Mazda in the Mazda 3 MPS. I can’t wait for the event to kick into action and get out on the amazing tarmac roads.

Brendo