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| Jason Pritchard taking on the Great Orme stage in his Subaru Impreza |
Jason Pritchard was denied in his quest of securing
his best ever finish in the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) this weekend. A
calamitous error of judgement by officials and marshals meant he was forced to
retire during Stage 16 at the start of the Sweet Lamb. A ‘jump’ on the stage,
which also ruined fellow Welshman Elfyn Evans Rally, should have been brought
to all drivers’ attention on approach, however this didn’t happen and Pritchard’s
previous good form over the first two days unfortunately counted for nothing.
Jason Pritchard was going
great guns in the Wales Rally GB, until his North Road Garage backed Subaru
Impreza landed in the dangerous hole on Stage 16 and ended his attempt to
record his best-ever result in his home Rally. Pritchard was 18th
overall and 3rd in the Production World Rally Championship (PWRC),
and when he was forced to retire, 2nd place was very much in his
sight:
“I’m distraught that we couldn’t finish
the race, I understand how testing this sport is and
understand the consequences of driving at the speed we do, but this shouldn’t
have been allowed to happen. We had been warned throughout the rally about
dangerous landings after the jumps and we approached these stages in a
controlled manner, however there was no warning about the situation on stage 16
– you only have to look at how myself and the other drivers went out to see
that the marshals should have been slowing us down – it was crazy!”
Pritchard who was joined by co-driver
Dale Furniss escaped the incident unhurt and Furniss also used his initiative
to warn other drivers about the hole by waving the cars to slow down as they
approached the jump, it was clear that his actions had saved a number of cars
from following Pritchard’s fate but unbelievably Furniss was told he shouldn’t
be slowing the drivers down:
“Dale reacted like anyone would’ve, he
jumped out and warned approaching drivers to slow down, something the marshals
should’ve been doing – I can’t believe they told him to stop the warning – we
would’ve made it to the Sunday and the finish if someone was warning us.”
This year's Wales Rally
GB included a considerably revised route compared to previous years - following
a Ceremonial Start in Llandudno, Thursday’s stages were on the spectacular
winding cliff-face road around the Great Orme headland on the North Welsh
coastline - a stage not used on the event for 30 years. The 1150-mile Rally
ventured southwards with the high speed action on many of Wales' most renowned
forest stages and the event culminated with a Ceremonial Finish in Cardiff on
the Sunday.
Pritchard made steady
progress throughout the first few days, the start on the tarmac during the
Great Orme stage was understandably cautious but Pritchard made good time
through the gravel stage on the Friday which saw him finish the day 4th
in the PWRC. On Saturday the 23-year-old from Builth Wells really stepped up a
gear and made great progress throughout the morning and he moved up to 3rd
place, with 2nd place a real possibility as he put pressure and
gained time on the top two drivers:
“I was feeling very
relaxed during Saturday’s stages, we were really up on the pace and I could
feel myself getting quicker as the day progressed. That’s why it hurt so much to
go out the race in the manner that we did.
“2011 has been quite
unlucky and this incident kind of summed up how it’s gone. However, I’m taking
the positives from how we finished the year and I know that I would’ve secured
my highest finish this weekend if I hadn’t had the incident. 2012 is going to
be a big year for me and I’m confident that my level of performance will only
get stronger and I can’t wait to get behind the wheel again.”
Pritchard is planning
to keep busy and intends to finish the year by working closely with his
Communications team and external designers to build a new website that will be
capable of holding blogs and video footage, allowing fans and the media to get
closer access to the young Welshman. The website launch, expected to be before
Christmas this year, will also co-inside with a new logo as Pritchard updates
his look and feel away from the car
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