2018/19 was our second season in the Fiesta R200 and it was a year of highs and lows. The previous year we’d had great consistency, finishing every round, but after a year in the car we were working on improving our pace. We’d worked hard over the summer, testing the car, building up the pace and doing a few non-championship events to build confidence and we had some good results.

For the first round of the championship at Oulton Park we had a great run on stage one and were sitting 3rd in class from 14 starters and 40th overall from 93 entries. Unfortunately we didn’t get any further as the clutch went and we were unable to start stage two so it wasn’t a great start to the season. We had a good run at round two at Cadwell Park finishing 4th in class from 13 starters which we were really pleased with.

Round 3 at Knockhill started out well and we were sitting in the top 20. However after lunch things went badly wrong for us when we clipped a tyre which flipped the car and resulted in us rolling three times, ending our rally and significantly damaging the car.

Fortunately this was the last event before the six week mid-season break for Christmas and New Year and thanks to the hard work of TnS Rally the car was sorted in time for Brands Hatch where we had a steady run, finishing 6th in class from 18 starters which we were happy with following the accident and a poor run at Brands the previous year. We had bad luck at Snetterton with a broken gearbox mount so had to crawl round two stages and get stage maximums but were able to get the part welded and finish so we still picked up some championship points. We had a good run at Donington, finishing 5th in class, and were delighted to finish 2nd in class at Anglesey (always a favourite!), leaving us sitting 2nd in the championship standings heading into the final round.

Unfortunately we didn’t get the end to the season we were hoping for at the second visit to Cadwell Park. On the first stage someone had knocked over one of the direction posts which we were forced to run over. We then heard a lot of scraping noises and thought we may have a puncture so pulled off to check which cost us over a minute. We had a slightly cautious run on the second stage but were pleased with stages three and four and started to get into a good rhythm by stage five. Unfortunately on stage six things started to go really wrong! On the second lap we ran a little wide and clipped some tyres and a gate which launched us onto two wheels. We damaged the steering in the process so when we landed back down I wasn’t able to steer the car and we went through the fence. Unfortunately we weren’t able to restart due to damage to the steering and radiator so that was the end of the event and our championship hopes.

Our accident at Cadwell was an unfortunate way to end the championship but Jamie and I were pleased to finish 2nd in class B and are looking forward to the awards dinner in June. We’ll be competing in several events over the summer in preparation for next season.

I’d like to thank everyone who has supported me this season; Jamie for doing a brilliant job on the notes and making me laugh when I was nervous at the start of a stage; TnS for looking after the car; James for his help in making everything run smoothly and my family for all their support. A massive thank you as well to our sponsors Cirrus Research and Real Systems Controls. We couldn’t have done it without you and are so grateful for all your support.