Short Rally Moorslede 2024 Report

The team were delighted to pick up a top 20 result on the weekend coming home in 18th overall after a fantastic day in extremely difficult conditions on the Short Rally van Moorslede.

Sunday morning started fairly damp with mixed weather conditions forecast, but before the crew left service to contend the first loop of two stages the heavens opened. Wet tyres bolted on to the ex-Prodrive Subaru Impreza and the team set off. Having been out of the driving seat for almost 2 years, Bill and Andy aimed to have a cautious start and build the pace throughout the day, with a finish and maximising seat time top priority.

The first stage of the loop included a double lap before splitting off for the second half of the stage on the Belgian country roads. The team launched into the stage and quickly caught a car in stage with higher seeding who was on his second lap. A handful of seconds were lost before car 43 split off and the team were free to explore the grip levels. It didn’t take long for Bill and Andy to find the limits with incredibly low grip on the slick, shiny and mud covered narrow roads. A couple of small moments, walking the tarmac tightrope and the team pulled back to take a safe, risk free approach whilst building experience on the treacherous stage. 37th fastest on the stage, but only 10 seconds off the top 20, a solid start.

The second stage was more fast and flowing and the team got straight into a good rhythm, again trying to keep the risk taking to a minimum in extremely difficult conditions. Around two thirds of the way through the stage we caught the car in front who had set off a minute ahead of us. After a brief Clio Rally 5 generated mud bath which lasted around half a kilometer they pulled aside to let us go. Some more seconds lost, but nothing too major. We were very pleased to get through the loop and rewarded with 17th quickest on the stage, to lie a very respectable 21st overall after the first loop.

Onto the second loop and on stage 3 we had a clean run, despite losing anti-lag early on in the stage. It was an issue that we also had on the same stage on the following loop. 32nd fastest on the stage and dropped back to 24th overall.

Stage 4 was again a clean and tidy run. We caught and passed the Clio in front every time the stage was run, but now knowing that we were likely to catch them in the stage, they were good as gold at quickly letting us by. It’s impossible to pass people on the stages in Moorslede without the car in front intentionally letting you go, so we have to give thanks to Alexander Derez and Barbara Vromman in their brand new Clio Rally 5, as they were very quick to jump out of the way all day, and also super friendly . At the half way point of the event we now sat in 22nd overall which far exceeded our expectations.

Onto loop number 3. For some reason the first stage of the loop, Moorslede, didn’t really click with us. Our times on the first three runs of the stage were 37th, 32nd and now on the third run through another 37th. The only excuses we have is being held up on the first run through and then a lack of anti-lag on the second and third, but we did feel a little perplexed by the times, as they didn’t feel that bad. Perhaps a stage that rewarded taking risks, and our safe approach was not the optimum.

We really enjoyed the second stage of the loop however, Dadizele, and went into stage 6 to enjoy ourselves. We had a really good rhythm, despite the extremely slippery conditions, not helped by oil all over the road during one section. We were starting to get a good feel for how to get the best out of the car on the Belgian roads and getting more comfortable chucking the car through the infamous Belgian cuts as the day went on. 14th fastest overall on the stage was way better than we could have hoped for, only 5 seconds off the top 10 on the stage.

Going in to the last loop we were looking on for a top result so it was a balancing act between enjoying ourselves, but making sure we brought the car home in one piece and sealed a dream result on our first event in Belgium with the car. We of course wanted to have another go at the Moorslede stage, to try and understand where we were dropping so much time. We continued our rhythm from the previous stage and had a great run, putting a time on the board of 14th quickest. We finally had figured it out!

Going into the last stage it was all about enjoying ourselves. We knew that people were likely to back off, but we felt confident in the Dadizele stage and therefore wanted to keep up the rhythm that we had and see what we could do. We had one heart in mouth moment where the car didn’t pop back out of one of the cuts as expected and we very nearly got sucked into one of the infamous Belgian ditches, but fortunately we were just able to wrestle the car out of the cut and back on to the road. The rest of the stage was a lot of fun, with confidence high and the car working well, there really is no better feeling. 12th overall on the last stage really was a dream come true. It’s not often in rallying that a day goes completely to plan, but this was one of those rare days! We finished the day sat in 18th overall, just 2.5 seconds away from 16th. We couldn’t have asked for a better start to the year, long may it continue.

We have to give a massive thanks to everyone that helped, Gary, Scott, Penny, Maaike and of course number one supporter Lily. Andy did a fantastic job on the notes all weekend, his first rally on pacenotes since we won the Motorsport UK championship back in 2018, but you would never have known. Also a big thanks to all of our partners- JFDIT Solutions Ltd, TRS Motorsport, Alltec Seys Autosportshop, Rally-Art Photography. Without their help we wouldn’t have been able to secure this excellent result. On a personal note, I’d also like to thank everyone for all the messages of support etc. it really means a lot. The rally community here in Belgium is so friendly and that really helps with my integration following my recent move from the UK to Belgium, Dikke Dankuwel!

We have some more exciting news coming soon, so keep an eye on the BP Rally Facebook page for that, as well as lot’s more coverage from the event. Until next time!