Wales Rally GB – a spectators viewpoint

(Apologies – I had this saved as a draft and apparently never his the publish button. No idea how that happened. So better late than never, eh? My Rally GB viewpoint.)

Staring in the mirror at 5am with 7 layers of clothing on, and an image staring back at you that’s more reminiscent of the Michelin man than yourself, it’s hard to comprehend what type of environment this would look good in. It seems that winter rallying in Britain is about the only time you can get away with such thick clothing that you’re limited to 50% movement and still look normal among the masses.

Heading across the bridge to Wales on a cold Saturday morning you could have been forgiven for thinking that nothing was out of the ordinary save for a few yellow signs warning of expectant delays. It was only a while later, and out of Cardiff, that the first signs appeared – Harry Hunt’s bright green Fiesta was the first clue.

Our tactic for the day was to head to Dixies and from there on in it was a case of traipsing through the forest to find a nice corner and hopefully some great company. Luckily for us we found both.

After what felt like miles of walking we found a long run in to a tight corner with a massive rock on the inside – here’s hoping for some action here, we thought. But who are we kidding? These drivers are not considered the best in the world for no reason. Not one came close to even brushing that rock!

With this being the last year of the current WRC cars it was certainly a moment to remember for life and a chance to get some great pictures to mark the sad occasion. Although the normally aspirated S2000 cars were also a joy to see screaming through the forests and I’m certainly looking forward to seeing the next batch of World Rally cars next year.

After many giggles, observations and cars later it was time for us to depart our new found friends and move to the more popular areas of the stages. It soon became apparent just how many people had turned up and although spectator figures are yet to be released it certainly seems as though this could have been a bumper year.

Unfortunately I didn’t get to service park however what what was going on in the forests instead was not to be missed. There is nothing quite like standing in the dark and hearing the growl of car hurtling towards you with spotlights blazing. It somehow makes the whole experience even more worth while.

And then the rain finally fell, up until this point Wales had provided us with the most stunning day. A brilliant rally.