The Copart Fiesta Trophy Winner - Tim Rodgers
My prize for winning the Copart Fiesta Trophy on Rally GB International this year was amazing. I won 4 tyres from DMack, £1000 from Copart and a chance to test the new Fiesta R2T at M-sport's test facility. To win anything other than a small plastic trophy and a round of applause in Rallying these days is very rare, so to have this prize package on offer for Fiesta ST drivers on Rally GB was a real breathe of fresh air. It gave the competitors something to fight for; yes we all go out to win, but when you have such an excellent prize on offer and to such a high value to it give you that extra incentive to up the pace, concentrate more and work harder on your pre event preparations. It also gives you a sense of being part of something important, being part of something bigger than just your own team, an identity if you will. Every competitor carried the same trophy decals on their car and wore branded hats/caps during the event (when not wearing a crash helmet!) so your presence was felt with spectators and other teams who would look and ask about the branding and identity which we were all proud to promote.
The event itself had its ups and downs for us, some of the downs being on the 2 days leading up to the start, but my team overcame the issues and made sure we were sitting on the start line on the Friday morning. It was the first time I had used the DMack tyres and made errors with the compound choice on the Friday, opting for the Medium compound. The stages were very long and we would have to do around 40 miles before we could get a chance to change them. The conditions were very wet and muddy and the pace of the car was a lot slower because of this so the tyre wear was minimal, our fellow competitors opted for the soft compound and seemed to be faring better than ourselves so we ran the rest of the event on the softs. Once I got used to the tyres and making them work for me, I could really start to trust them and they were really effective in the conditions.
A couple of the other Fiesta ST's had issues along the way so the pressure was off us so we drove our own event and made sure we got to the finish to achieve our goal. The event had been a lifelong dream of mine so I had put a lot of my own money into the project. Winning the cash from Copart really helped with paying off the bills and the 4 new tyres from DMack will help with the next event too.
The test in the Fiesta R2T happened on Thursday 17th December. I was there on the same day as the DMack Fiesta Shoot out so it was interesting to chat to fellow competitors who have been competing a higher level this season and it was great to see their driving style too. When it was my turn I was strapped in and given a briefing of the controls, anti-lag, launch control, stage/road mode settings etc. and then sent on my way! I had been given three 5 lap sessions and was able to take a passenger on each of the sessions. My wife, Becky Kirvan, jumped in first; she hadn't been in a rally car since she did Rally GB in 2011 so was keen to get the buzz again.
John Pritchard, the Copart trophy coordinator then jumped in the passenger seat for a few laps, he was in just as much ore of the machine as I was but we both commented on how it felt so smooth and the power easy to control. The car had so much torque but it never tried to rip the steering wheel out of your hand or do anything you weren't expecting, in fact in that way it was very similar to the ST's but just a serious technical evolution of it!
My laps were up so I came down to the stop line and selected 'road' mode again and the car gently calmed down to a smooth tick over again, I got out of the car with the biggest smile on my face. To say I had just been driving a 1 Litre, 3 cylinder car and getting so much torque out of it was insane! John and I just looked at each other and couldn't believe how much fun it was. It was such an amazing opportunity to get to drive it as part of the Prize package and a day I will never forget!
I have to say thank you to John Pritchard for organising the Copart Fiesta Trophy and also DMack and M-Sport but mostly thanks go to Copart for giving me the opportunity to compete as part of a 'team' of cars on Rally GB, giving us an identity with media interest and for the prizes they put up. I would have never had the opportunity to test such a current car if it hadn't been for this prize package and it has given me the drive to want more!
I am trying to get together the budget needed to get out on the 2016 ST challenge so watch this space!
Tim Rodgers #101
