Well the 2025 rallying season has come to an end for both Shaun and Richard. The final event of the year which has been a staple event for the past few seasons was the South Downs Stages, based at Goodwood Motor Circuit. This year however was slightly different to normal as Shaun voluntarily gave up his seat to say thanks to a team member that works tirelessly behind the scenes. The team member in question was Henry Smith, who helps to develop the notes for Richard and Shaun during the preparation period ahead of closed road events. Henry is a petrol head through and through and with his interest in rallying growing ever bigger Shaun felt it was only right that he had a go in the silly seat.....not that Henry had much choice in the matter. 

As with any event the preparation started well before the recce. This was done through the usual in depth process of event research and stage research to ensure that all logistics were covered, but also so that there was a base set of notes to work from during the recce. The process takes a bit of time and after multiple phone calls back and forth between Shaun and Richard they were ready for what lay ahead of them, with notes they were confident gave them a good head start ahead of recce. 

Now many people would believe that drivers and co-drivers have a fairly easy run up to an event if there is a team preparing the car and that they don't do anything until they arrive at an event. For sure this may be the case for a grassroots style stage rally, however for an event like the Hemicuda Rally in Belgium this simply is not the case. Preparation began somewhat 5 or more weeks in advance with team schedules, fuel schedules and even pace notes being made. In order for an event to run as smoothly as possible it is important to make sure the preparation is completed to a high standard and that as a co-driver you are able to answer any question that may be fired your way. In order to do this as a co-driver I spend a lot of time before an event reading through the regulations and any other information I can get my hands on for an event and making sure I know it all inside out so that I become a walking, talking set of information. Anyway, all the prep was completed in the run up to the event and this even included a base set of notes created by my driver (Richard Weatherley) through the use of past YouTube videos of the stages which are then cross referenced with the roadbook if available.