Monteberg Rally 2025 Report

Last weekend Bill Paynter and Andy Hollingham secured a solid finish at the Monteberg Rally in their Subaru Impreza.

It was the second time that the crew had competed on the Monteberg having secured 20th overall on last years event. Despite this it would still be a learning experience as the three stages for this years event had been changed since last year. There were 125 competitive kilometers for the stellar 140 car entry to get stuck into. The event was based in the city of Poperinge, with the city square offering a picturesque backdrop for those crews lucky enough to make it to the finish. With stages run across the Heuvelland region, one stage was held just down the road from where the team is based.

Bill and Andy’s aim for the event was to bring home an important finish, and maximising seat time in readiness for their next event, the climax of the year, the iconic Ypres rally.

Dry weather was welcomed as the team bolted soft compound tyres onto the Impreza and then headed out for the first loop of three stages. Following early retirement from the crews last event at the Short Rally Van Moorslede, a cautious start was undertaken, the risk free approach saw some time dropped on the stage, but still landed them 27th overall after the first Busseboom test.

The second stage re-used some sections from last years event, so Bill and Andy felt more comfortable as they built the pace over the Monteberg. This added pace was evident as the team had a big lock up slowing the car down from around 120mph to a square junction where they were only just able to get the car stopped.

Onto the third test Mesen-Wijtschate, a completely new stage for the team, with unique characteristics. The speeds on this stage were quite shocking, as Bill and Andy discovered that their newly written pacenotes were perhaps slightly pessimistic, with the speeds much higher than forecast. Most importantly, the team were really enjoying themselves, and sitting in a very respectable 23rd overall after the first loop.

With the weather now warming up, medium compound tyres were fitted at the first service, and the crew headed out to the next loop of three stages. The hot pace continued, with a trouble free loop, now setting consistent times and being able to compete with much more modern machinery.

Onto the third loop of stages and the crew continued to enjoy themselves. That was however until one slippery corner on the Monteberg stage caught out the Subaru. Bill had been struggling with understeer on one particular left hander earlier in the day, a low speed corner that was covered in dust and gravel from a small cut on the inside. Attempting to cure their dreaded understeer, Bill used the handbrake on entry, however, the rear of the car slid fully into the dirt and dropped into a ditch/bank. Fortunately, first gear was selected and the crew were able to drag themselves out with only a handful of seconds lost, and a chunk of rear bumper. 3 bumpers in 3 events, not ideal! Bill patched up the rear corner on the following road section, and the team continued without any mechanical damage.

Going into the final loop, the team found themselves still lying in 23rd position, in a battle with Dutchman Jelte De Boef in his Mitsubishi Evo 10 R4+. Bill and Andy were only 1.4 seconds down on the Dutch team going into the last pair of stages.

On stage 11, the team turned up the heat and posted a strong stage time, 3.1 seconds faster than the Mitsubishi, now giving them a slight lead of 1.7 seconds over their rivals going into the last stage, and only 10 seconds away from the top twenty.

The BP Rally team knew that they would have to keep pushing and fired the Subaru into the final stage over the Monteberg. Unfortunately, early on in the stage, the team broke slightly too late on a fast corner leading to a junction, which resulted in overshooting the junction. About 10 seconds were lost as Bill and Andy stopped the Subaru and had to reverse back onto the stage. Knowing that the position was probably now lost, this lit a fire under the Bill, engaging full attack mode for the rest of the stage in order to try and fight back.

The pace and way the car was working in this stage gives great confidence to the team for future events. They were absolutely on it for the remainder. In the end, the Subaru dropped only 4 seconds to the Mitsubishi of De Boef/Christiaens, as Bill and Andy dropped to finish 23rd overall on the event.

Still a strong result, against very strong competition on the event, the pace was super hot, and the bravery from all crews at a very high level on these iconic stages.

All being well, the Subaru’s next event will be the Ypres Rally at the end of June. The team have some work to do, not only to the bodywork. After reviewing data after the event, it was confirmed that the Subaru was significantly down on boost, with the car running under 1 bar of boost throughout the event, a turbo issue that has haunted us throughout the whole of last year seems to still be present. So we will focus on trying to get that sorted, so we can have full power and fight strong at the Ypres Rally.

As always, the team would like to say a big thank you to all of our partners for their continued support-

Speedline Corse UK

Cleanwheelz

Alltec Seys Autosportshop

Roger Clark Motorsport

JFDIT Solutions

Atelier Artiek

Rally Art Photography