After an encouraging debut in the Peugeot 208 Cup in March, Lampeter’s Meirion Evans headed to Antibes in the South of France for Round 2 of the series – Rallye Antibes Cote d’Azur.
The event would provide one of the biggest challenges to date for the 22 year old, with stages such as ‘Col de Turini’ and ‘Col de Bleine’ – names synonymous with the world famous Monte Carlo Rally – providing more than 200 competitive kilometres of stages over two days. Coupled with temperatures of more than 20 degrees Celsius and a limitation of just 8 tyres to last the whole event, the rally was a true definition of a marathon.
However, the event would be cut short early on for Meirion and co-driver Jonathan Jackson with the brakes fading at the end of just the second stage; with no additional fluid aboard their Chazel Technologie Course ran Peugeot 208 R2, the pair would be out for the day.
Day two would begin with dry conditions as the Melvyn Evans Motorsport and The Scan Station backed crew made their way to tackle three classic tests – including stages over the Col de Turini and La Cabanette, most recently used on Rallye Monte Carlo. With the benefit of having greater flexibility in their tyre choice following their day 1 retirement, Evans headed up the Col to record his first top 10 time in the ultra competitive Cup – taking seventh fastest on the first loop.
Heading into service in Nice, the threat of rain on the top of the mountainous stages became apparent with a storm passing through the region, leaving the stages higher up the peaks damp under foot. Leaving service confident in his tyre choice, Evans exited the 18km test over Turini fourth fastest of the 208 R2 contenders, just 9 seconds shy of his first fastest time;
“Obviously the first day was a huge disappointment, we had a strong run through stage 1 but we lost the brakes about 2 kilometres from the end but managed to nurse it through although we overshot one of the last hairpins of the stage. So all things considered the time wasn’t too bad and we had planned to fix the issues at the end of stage 2 and get through stage 3 and back to service. But with no fluid in the car we were helpless and had to retire.
Alternatively, day 2 was much more positive. It’s a really specialist event and with 35 R2 cars starting the event it was pleasing to always be around the top 10. And to set 2 really strong times up the Turini gives us the belief that we can fight for a good result on the next round as it was the only stage where we could push fully and not worry about overcooking the tyres and brakes”
An overshoot as a result of returning brake problems on the gruelling ‘La Cabanette’ test would see Evans and Jackson bring the Michelin shod 208 R2 back to Antibes satisfied with the days performance, though rueing Saturday’s events and another case of what might have been.
“We cut our tyres for the last loop as we were told the stages would be quite wet In places but 2 out of the 3 were fully dry and the other was probably 65% dry. While the driving felt better on the first stage of the loop the time didn’t show as the tyre was too soft and we were preserving it for the following stages. Just after the halfway point of the last stage the tyres went off resulting in an overshoot and with the car not doing what I wanted it to, It was difficult to manage the brakes like we did on the first pass. But we must appreciate what we’ve learnt from this rally-not only about the rally itself but having to alter your driving style to adapt to certain stages. It’s invaluable experience and something we will build on in the future.
We’ve shown we have good speed when we can push and with the next round being quite new to most drivers In the cup unlike the first 2 rounds, we’re hoping a change of fortunes will see things click into place in Vosgien and it would be nice to come away with a solid result. ”
Meirion and Jonathan now head to Rallye Vosgien in just two weeks time, following the cancellation of the originally billed Terre du Diois, for more tarmac stages; this time those used on the last French round of the WRC on mainland France, Rallye France.
Be the first to comment