Tom Cave looks to Pirelli International
IRDC member and current leader of the 2012 MSA British Rally Championship Tom Cave, heads to the third round of the series, the Pirelli International Rally in a bullish mood after his first international rally win on the previous round, the Bulldog. Tom is refusing to allow the loss of a major sponsor and a challenging week affect his plans for the event, even though the rest of his season now hangs in the balance.
Following his exceptional performance on the Bulldog Rally in a rented car, Tom and the Davies Motorsport Services team have rebuilt his Citroen DS3 R3, which was damaged and thought written-off following component failure in testing last month. A steering brakeage following a small jump meant the car came to rest submerged in a pond on the Sweet Lamb test stage.
However, once the car had been dried out and the central control unit within the cockpit changed, the engine fired first time and the major systems appeared undamaged and after a radiator change, the car was ready for a shakedown test.
The short test demonstrated that the DS3 was back to form and Tom is now looking forward to another pre-event test where he hopes rain will feature, so that he can develop a wet weather set-up for the car, since he is happy with the dry settings he developed for the Bulldog.
However, he suffered another blow when his major sponsor confirmed it would not be able to continue to support his 2012 BRC campaign and while Tom has sufficient funds for the Pirelli International, he finds himself in the unenviable situation that without securing additional support, his season may well be over halfway through and potentially, with him leading one of the world's most prominent national rally championships.
The two-day Pirelli International is based at Carlisle Racecourse and features two stages run on the evening of Friday 27 April with a further ten stages on Saturday 28 April. The first crews are expected at the finish at 7pm.
24th April, 2012