Weatherley/Layland Return To Belgian Form

Well first of all, here at Layland Rallying we'd like to apologise for the lack of blogs as of late. This is due to a combination of factors, including a quieter event schedule than usual. Anyway back to the task at hand...

After a slight hiatus due to the catastrophic engine failure at Brands Hatch Winter Stages earlier in the year, the C3 engine was back to full health and the boys (Richard and Shaun) were back together for another go at the Flanders International Rally Challenge. The earlier engine failure forced Richard and Shaun to miss Round 1 of the championship, leaving them on the back foot once again. However, spirits remained high as they arrived in Belgium determined to secure a strong FIRC result at an event where they made their championship debut last year. Their efforts would ultimately be rewarded with 9th Overall and 2nd in FIRC, but more on this below!

Friday 29th May saw the journey to the event begin and this was slightly longer than normal for Shaun on the drive to Richards due to half term traffic. Despite this time set back the crew were together once again and after the obligatory catch up it was time to head over to the hotel in Deerlijk. A swift journey from here on in saw them arrive at the hotel just 3 hours after leaving Richards house. Time for some rest before a busy day of recce on the Saturday. 

Saturday came and EDSL Sport were set up in the service area ready and waiting for the crew to arrive at 9.30am as planned. Another brief catch up was had before heading over to rally HQ to collect their roadbooks at 10am. Shaun was one of the first in the queue and after roadbook collection he was skimming through to compare it to that of last years event when he noticed a bunch of markings and scribbles throughout. This was not ideal so a quick chat with the signing on team and a new roadbook was acquired...this time it was clean and fresh so off they went recce the stages. For this year the first 2 stages were 75% identical to that of last year thus meaning the note edits and writing was minimal. Stage 3 on the other hand was brand new for the crew and it was a spectator stage that involved 5 laps with a split and a merge within the closed road complex of D'Hooie. This stage was earmarked as one that was not only incredibly slippy due to a sand and cement works being the main part of the stage but also one that may be chaotic with cars, so a mental note was made. 

Recce complete though and the boys from EDSL had got the car through scrutineering with flying colours all by 4.30pm CET. With nothing left to do, it was simply a case of a brief note tidy up and then back to the hotel for a relax before rally day on the Sunday and due to the heat during recce it would've been rude not to visit the swimming pool to cool off!

Sunday 31st May - Rally Day

An early start and a day fuelled by excitement. Richard and Shaun arrived at service for 8.20am ready for their start time of 9.10am as car number 20. With the team happy and the boys happy the time flew by and it was time to start the first loop of stages. Off they went to tackle De Ginste as stage 1 which starts off with a donut around a roundabout not once but twice! Despite not having done many of these before, Richard nailed it, sending the car cleanly around the roundabout before charging off down the lanes ahead. It was a nice clean first run through the stage and it was as if they never had the 4 and a half month lay off. Stage 2 (Hulste) was fast and furious and even started with a bit of a limiter bashing due to a 1.6km straight to a chicane from the start! Mind blown and many a conversation about what origami could be completed on the straight was had. Another clean stage though so the spirits were high and they were just on the cusp of breaking the top 15 overall heading into stage 3...the chaotic one....

Stage 3 started off clean, with not a car in sight. It was time to capitalise and push. Unfortunately, Rich and Shaun got slightly off line and spun the car on lap 2. A stall followed and then with the engine running again, a quick handbrake turn around before heading off to finish 3 more laps but the damage was done and the seconds were lost. Not to worry though as another 9 stages lay ahead so the day was young. 

After a quick service back at OC Mandleroos in Oostrozebeke it was time for loop 2 and this one was a good clean run with nothing to report other than a good push to fight back up the leaderboard slightly. Rich put in a sterling performance and utilised all his circuit racing knowledge on stage 6 (D'Hooie) to not only overtake car 21 (Scott Barnes & Bill Paynter) who were giving it a good go in their mighty 106 and held us off for a good portion of the stage, but also to get within 4s of the stage win! 

Service again and then out for loop 3 which saw some misfortune on stage 7. Sadly the boys picked up a puncture somewhere along the stage and even after reviewing the in car footage they are still unsure of how or where it happened! The poor Michelin tyre screamed enough it felt and let go of its air thus slowing Rich and Shaun down. A quick change and off to the next 2 stages which once again were clean with nothing to report except more epic racing with Scott/ Bill on stage 9. It seemed to be traditional now that we'd have the battle on that stage with them and it was nothing but positive from both crews who were very complimentary of one another. We hope to see some in car from both cars very soon as we're sure that this was an epic battle. 

Sadly during this loop it would see the retirement of Richard and Shaun's team mates Jeremy Packer & Glyn Thomas in their eye catching Ford Fiesta Rally3. A small off ended their day but we're happy to report that they are both OK and the car has minimal damage so their target of taking on Ypres is still very much on track. 

The final loop lay ahead and Richard/ Shaun were now within the top 15 despite the spin and puncture and were lying 2nd in the FIRC with others hot on their heels. 3 stages remained and to cement their position they would have to have a good clean loop. This is exactly what they managed to achieve and they would also like to compliment Scott/ Bill on how hard that 106 was being driven on the final stage as it was a spectacle for sure! A successful loop and it seems Richards favourite stage was D'Hooie as he was always within touching distance of a stage win in there with a clean run so we're sure that some more stage wins in Belgium are on their way! 

A strong finish and some seriously strong pace shown along with a fight back after small set backs saw the pairing claim 9th Overall and 2nd FIRC which they are chuffed to bits with. We'd like to extend our thanks to the organisers for putting on a cracking event but also to EDSL Sport for preparing a faultless car. An absolute pleasure to work alongside them and we look forward to the next event.....not long to go!