Rally Report 2018 – Evans records solid French debut!

Capdenac-Gare in the province of Aveyron in the South of France would provide the setting for the opening round of the Peugeot 208 Cup and what would be twenty-two year old Meirion Evans’ first event of 2018.

Fresh from two years in the Junior British Rally Championship, Evans and long term co-driver Jonathan Jackson made the switch to the ultra competitive one make series over the winter, keen to challenge themselves in what has been described as the most competitive R2 championship in Europe – and on some of the most challenging stages the continent has to provide.

Rallye Terre des Causses would provide ten stages and more than 140km of competitive action, split over two days. A unique challenge of the gravel events in France is a one pass recce, carried out in the rally car, on the morning of each leg; the addition of wet roads at the beginning of each day added to the sizeable challenge ahead of the young Lampeter driver.

With the regulations of the 208 Cup stipulating that all crews must use the hard compound Michelin gravel tyre, the first pass would be a steep learning curve as the Melvyn Evans Motorsport backed crew acclimatized to the level of grip on offer. Bent steering after stage one and a stall on the third stage of the opening loop dropped the pair time to their more experienced rivals. However, with the conditions improving during the afternoon, and confidence aboard the Chazel Technologie Course ran Peugeot 208 R2 rising by the kilometer, Evans was able to begin to close on his rivals ahead, to end the day thirteenth of the nineteen identical 208 R2’s.

The second leg would dawn damp and foggy – adding yet more challenges to an already challenging weekend. However, with confidence remaining high overnight, Meirion and Jonathan were able to pick up where they left off and immediately began taking significant amounts of time out of the cars in front.

“It’s always been made clear to me just how competitive this championship is and it is something that you cant prepare for and don’t appreciate until you do it. The result in the end was OK, not helped by the issues we encountered on day one but 9 of the 10 drivers ahead of us were French and the majority are a long way ahead of us when it comes to experience of these events as very little changes form year to year. The one pass recce isn’t the easiest but the notes felt good, but to be on the pace of the front-runners you have to be driving perfectly which I found difficult as I was struggling to find the grip under braking on the hard tyres. Whilst my driving on day 1 wasn’t the best, our pace on day 2 was quite pleasing for us going forwards and I’m sure if we were to come back next year we would be quicker from the outset as we learnt a hell of a lot and that can only be positive”

The next round of the Peugeot 208 Cup sees the Welsh duo head to Nice for Rallye d’Antibes – the first tarmac event of the Cup. The stages used by the event are familiar to Rally fans across the globe with the Col de Turini and Col de Braus – synonymous with Rallye Monte Carlo – featuring on the itinerary.

“Antibes will be a fantastic experience. Again, we won’t have any prior experience but we will prepare well as usual. The stages are legendary and we will enjoy them and focus on performing as well as we can and hopefully we will get a positive result to show for it. The rally is very demanding and will require me to consider things that don’t come into play as much in the UK such as preserving tyres and brakes on the long descents.”

However, before the return to the South of France, Meirion and Jonathan will head to Clacton on Sea for England’s first closed road Rally aboard a Ford Fiesta R5 Evo 2.