Christina og Anette i ACE Racing har som mål å kjøre Dakar Rally i 2023, og forberedelsene er allerede i gang. Les mer i denne pressemeldingen.
After our crash with the Defender at Walters Arena, we managed to get our hands on a
Ford Escort MK2 as a rental for Rally North Wales. The car was hired from Tsalta Motorsport
who is Linda and Gary Thomas. Our goal was to finish the rally in one piece, practise
pacenotes and our communication inside a rallycar.
We arrived in UK on Thursday to have an extra day of training. Christina went to
Forrest Rally School in Carno to meet up with Tsalta Motorsport on Friday for a shakedown
with the Escort. Gary also adjusted Christinas seat so she could reach the pedals and steering
wheel. At Carno, they have a 2mile practise lap that was exclusive to Christina for this
shakedown. Anette stayed at the B&B to practise pacenotes to the video of the Rally North
Wales stages.
Friday afternoon we both met up with Tsalta Motorsport in Dolgellau at the service
area. The car and equipment passed scrutineering with no trouble, and the final adjustment
could be made. Anette could not reach the footplate and there where limited seat adjustments
available on the co-driver side. Therefore, Gary showed some McGyver skills by tweaking
and cutting a plastic box for spare parts to make the footplate fit Anette. Anette had a real
Cinderella moment!
Raceday started early since we had the last start number of the 2000ccm 2wd (nr 130),
our class was W11 with 16 competitors. We both where quite excited and super stoked to
finally be in our first gravel rally, actually so stoked that we misunderstood and placed
ourselves in the wrong starting queue and came in late to the start. (ooops… we got a 50 sec
penalty). But what is to expect from two new beginners in the same car?
We did not care about our results, we wanted to finish the rally in one piece and use
the rally to learn pacenotes. We had a really great time, and as expected – we misunderstood a
few things that led to penalties. We have not had a look the results yet, but we are confident
we came in last in our class. Anyway, SS1-4 was all about having a good run and lots of fun.
SS4-8 was about doing slightly better. We are proud of ourselves to have made it through this
rally as good as we did! We learned from our “mistakes” and will do even better next time.
All in all, an amazing experience that gave us the much-needed training and insight to what
we need to prepare for Dakar 2023.
A huge thank you to all the Rally North Wales volunteers, Marshalls and all others
who made this rally possible. Without all these amazing and so welcoming and happy people
there would not have been a rally to attend. We’ll be back!
A special thanks to Tsalta Motorsport for taking such good care of us. Linda made
sure we where fed and hydrated from when we came and until we left. Gary made sure the car
was in its best shape and run like a rocket!