Osian Pryce celebrated his stunning debut win in Portugal – by heading for the building site.
The Machynlleth-born flier triumphed in the World Rally Championship-based Drive DMACK Fiesta Trophy finishing almost two minutes ahead of his nearest rival.
But for Pryce – and co-driver Dale Furniss – the Porto victory party did not last long as he was back at work on the building site on Monday morning.
The 23-year-old said: “I think we’ll have a bit of a celebration at the airport.
“But I’ll be in work at eight o’clock. It’s going to be a bit surreal to be back on the site after doing what we were doing 24 hours earlier!
“I’m so happy, so, so happy! It’s incredible.
“And it’s not just for me, so many people have worked so hard to put me in the position to fight for this championship this year and to pay them back with a win first time out in the car is really special.”
Pryce was second for much of the three-day rally but moved into the lead when his Portuguese rival Bernardo Sousa crashed on the 19th and final stage.
It meant the duo were category winners in the FIA World Rally Championship for the first time.
He eventually won the category by one minute 45.1secs from Max Vatanen, son of 1981 world champion Ari.
Pryce added: “Our morning had gone very well. We weren’t taking any risks.
“We had a good margin to Max and the aim was to maintain that and take points for second place and some bonus points for stage wins.
“When we saw Bernardo’s car on its side, I couldn’t really believe it.
“Straight away, Dale said: “Concentrate!” I must admit, for the next corner or couple of corners, I did have a quick think about things, but then I was back focused on bringing the car home for the win.
“We came close to winning the Junior WRC class on this rally last year and then in Poland as well, but both times we missed out.
To finally do it, to finally win at this level makes up for all that disappointment. It’s an incredible feeling.”
And a repeat on next month’s Drive DMACK Fiesta Trophy category on Rally Poland would then bag the prize of two drives in an M-Sport Ford Fiesta R5 next season.
Pryce added:“The way the DDFT prize is structured, there are two drives on offer to the person with the most points from Portugal and Poland; Poland and Finland and finally Germany and Spain.
“We’ve got to be completely focused on scoring some big points in Poland – if we do that, I think that would be an even bigger celebration!
“I must admit I’ve absolutely loved this event.
“Making the switch from Junior WRC to DDFT was absolutely the right move for me this season.
Malcolm Wilson, two-time WRC-winning team principal and managing director of M-Sport – the firm which builds the Ford Fiesta R2Ts used in DDFT – was impressed with Pryce’s display.
Wilson said: “To do this on his debut in the Fiesta R2T is great.
“It would have been difficult for him to come here and compete in a car which he’s not so familiar with, but he’s been very sensible and very quick, setting some fastest times on his way to the win.
“I told all of the drivers before the start, the key here was to play themselves in, learn the car and don’t try to do too much too quickly.
“Osian and Dale have done that and come out as winners.”