By Paul Evans
As Elfyn Evans prepares to lead the FIA World Rally Championship into the penultimate round of the series in Belgium next month, fellow countryman Meirion Evans has issued a warning – those super smooth and fast asphalt roads in Flanders become unbelievably wet and slippery in the winter, as he discovered to his cost.
Rallying hasn’t been as quick to restart in some places as it has been in the WRC, so Evans (the talented amateur one) has been forced to look further afield to get back in the saddle.
With his assault on the Irish Tarmac Championship canned after just one round, it was a long eight months before Evans found another event to contest.
All he wanted was a nice clean run and maximum stage mileage on the Aarova Rally to get himself back up to speed in The Scan Station-backed Volkswagen Polo GTI R5, but it sadly wasn’t to be.
Light drizzle was forecast, but instead it was torrential – washing mud on to the narrow roads, creating large pools of standing water and making driving at rally speed virtually impossible.
The 25-year old Lampeter driver’s trip to Belgium was short and not very sweet, for after issues on the opening two stages, the weather deteriorated – so much so that he and co-driver Michael Gilbey could do little to prevent the Melvyn Evans Motorsport-run car from slipping off the road shortly after.
“Unfortunately we retired on stage four of the Aarova Rally when we slid wide on a right hander and got stuck,” said Evans.
“There was no damage to the car, but it was a bad day on the whole as we had to drive on a wheel rim in stage one and on a puncture in stage two. Despite this we were still quite close to the Belgian regulars on the second stage.
“Awful conditions in stage three made it impossible to get any rhythm and to enjoy the driving with the road conditions getting worse.
“It was quite an impossible rally really. We couldn’t do much in that weather, and the risks were so high for no gain in the conditions at this time of year.
“A big thanks nonetheless to the boys and to Michael Gilbey for stepping in on the notes, and to all my supporters. It was quite nice to be back even though we didn’t have a clean stage.”
So watch out Evans (the pro Toyota driver).
You will arrive there 14 points ahead in the drivers’ standings, but November’s Ypres Rally is likely to go one of two ways: a slippery nightmare or a wet dream!