Tom Williams is aiming to end his second year of learning in the FIA Junior World Rally Championship with a good result on his home round of the series, Wales Rally GB (3-6 October).
Having made his WRC debut on WRGB in 2016, Tom has finished all three of his previous appearances on the event and won the WRC3 class last year. This time the 20-year old Oxfordshire pilot will return as one of the youngest and only British driver in the JWRC, looking to continue the ‘University of Rallying’ learning process which has seen his pace increase consistency throughout this season.
Ever since he set some impressive stage times last time out on Rally Finland, Tom has been preparing for WRGB – working hard on his pace note system with his loyal 31-year old Nottingham-based RAF Reservist co-driver Phil Hall and spending time with the M-Sport Ford World Rally Team building Fiesta R5 and WRC cars at its Cumbria headquarters. He also went with M-Sport to help run defending British Rally Champion Matt Edwards on the recent Ulster Rally.
The mechanical skills Tom has acquired might prove important on such a long event as WRGB, especially on the Saturday leg when all seven stages are tackled without service and only the driver and co-driver are allowed to make emergency running repairs with tools carried in their EcoBoost-powered Ford Fiesta R2T.
Tom said: “It’s fantastic to end the Junior World Rally Championship on my home round of the series and I’m really looking forward to going out and competing in front of the British fans. I’ve done the event three times before, and I’ve done a few other rallies beside that in Wales in recent years, so at least I have a good feel and understanding for the stages.
“The JWRC is very much the University of Rallying and I’m still learning, so there is a lot of preparation to do. Wales Rally GB is a very long and demanding event, so you have to be mentally and physically up for the challenge. Friday is tricky, with four tough stages in Elsi, Penmachno, Dyfnant and Aberhirnan forests before a mid-day service, while Saturday is even harder with no service during the day at all. Saturday could be the crucial day, as you have to be fast and make no mistakes, which is a difficult thing to do.
“When I started in the JWRC at the beginning of last year I was around five seconds a kilometre off the pace of the fastest drivers – and now, just a year and only nine rounds later, I’m within one second a kilometre of the best times, so we are exactly where I want to be at this stage in my career. We started off this season with fourth in Sweden and fifth in Corsica, and whilst our results on the gravel in Sardinia and Finland weren’t what we had hoped for, our split and stage times certainly were. So in terms of improving pace and consistency we’ve had a very good season, and now we aim to end our JWRC campaign on a high at Rally GB.”
This year’s Wales Rally GB will begin on Thursday (3 October) with a showpiece Ceremonial Start at Liverpool’s iconic Waterfront, before crews head (for the first time in over 25 years) to a stage at Oulton Park in Cheshire. Friday (4 October) returns to more familiar rallying territory in the forests of north Wales with a loop of four stages (Elsi, Penmachno, Dyfnant and Aberhirnan) before mid-day service at the rally’s new base in Llandudno – where the JWRC crews will be servicing along the seafront. The afternoon includes a repeat of all four stages and a run over the Slate Mountain stage, with the second pass through Aberhirnant run in darkness. A gruelling ‘Super Saturday’ (5 October) sees the rally head into the legendary mid-Wales forests of Dyfi, Myherin and Sweet Lamb Hafren. There is no mid-day service, only a regroup in Newtown before these stages are repeated. However, crews won’t reach the safety of a well earned end-of-day service until they have also completed an exciting new street stage set on the recently refurbished promenade in Colwyn Bay. Sunday (6 October) sees stages in Alwen and Brenig forests, set on the Denbigh Moors. These are followed by a blast around the iconic Great Orme peninsula, a mid-morning service and a repeat of Alwen and Brenig, before the Ceremonial Finish in Llandudno. The refreshed 2019 route contains 22 stages, totalling more than 200 miles (320km).