Tom Williams might have more experience competing on gravel than on any other surface, but the only British driver in this year’s FIA Junior World Rally Championship has never contested Rally Italy (13-16 June) before. This means that the rugged and sun-baked stages on the picture postcard Mediterranean island of Sardinia will be another challenging event – but it’s an event he’s aiming to increase his pace on and push hard for another strong result.
With fast and narrow rock-lined loose surface tracks leaving absolutely no margin for error, Rally Italy is a difficult event for even the most senior of competitors – and especially so for an island newcomer like Tom. As the outside air temperature is expected to hit 30°C, conditions will be oven-like inside his M-Sport developed EcoBoost-powered Ford Fiesta R2, making this the hottest and most physically demanding round of the season.
Co-driven by Phil Hall, the 20-year old Oxfordshire driver arrives in Sardinia sitting sixth in the JWRC points table, after successfully notching up two very strong performances on surfaces that he has the least experience on. Tom started the season by finishing fourth out of 13 JWRC drivers on the ice and snow of Rally Sweden; just missing out on a podium finish, despite the field containing six drivers from Scandinavia and the Baltic States. He then finished an excellent fifth on the Tour of Corsica, even after losing time with a double puncture.
Despite Sardinia being a completely new event for Tom, he is aiming to put his gravel driving skills to good use and pick up his pace – whilst still maintaining the high level of stage-by-stage consistency which has served him so well on the previous rounds.
Tom said: “Rally Sardinia is a completely new event for me, but I’m really looking forward to it as it’s on gravel – the surface I have the most experience on. I’ve been watching a lot of in-car footage and the event looks like a cross between Rally Portugal and Turkey. The stages look quite tight, twisty and technical, so it should suit my driving style. So long as I can find a good set-up for the car, I feel that it’s an event that I will be able to push quite hard on. The rally can be quite rough, and it’s common for rocks to be pulled out onto the road by the cars running ahead, so you have to be careful to avoid hitting them and collecting punctures. We’ll have to be on the pace and careful at the same time, which is the hardest balance of them all.
“Sardinia is also likely to be the hottest rally of the JWRC, so I’ve been working hard on my fitness. I’ve been in the gym five days a week, and I’ve been karting and boxing to work on my upper body strength and reflexes. The hard work is paying dividends, and I feel in very good shape both physically and mentally.”
This year’s Rally Italy starts on Thursday evening (13 June) with a super special stage at the former Ittiri motocross track, near host coastal town of Alghero. Friday’s leg features four stages to the northeast, which are tackled twice to give a total distance of almost 78 miles (125kms). Saturday (15 June) is the longest day of the event, with nearly 90 miles (145kms) of competition over a tightly clustered group of three stages, which are driven morning and afternoon, in the Monte Acuto region. One of the main features of the day is the famous Micky’s Jump, situated in the Monte Lerno stage, where the cars hang in the sky as the road drops away beneath them. The final day on Sunday (16 June) features two repeated stages covering 26.06 miles (41.94kms) on the coast north of Alghero. It ends with the Sassari – Argentiera Wolf Power Stage, which contains a stunning final section alongside the sea. The podium ceremony starts at 15.00, after all 19 stages and 192.94 stage miles (310.52kms) have been completed.