We were seeded as the 1st Rally First crew, which meant we had no real way of judging our pace until service. So in the 1st stage, we tried pushing as hard as we dare, and we had a good run, taking 10 seconds of our nearest class rival, which was a great start.
On the 2nd stage, the crew we thought would push us the hardest made a mistake and lost 2 and half minutes, this meant we had a little breathing space, although we didn't know it until service. We carried on pushing through stage's 2, 3, and 4 and won all 3 stages despite having a big over shoot at the start of stage 3.
At service, the car only needed a clean and a re-fuel, excellent.
Stage 5 was our favourite, we managed to take about 30 seconds off 2nd fastest in class, so we knew we could ease off in the last 2. We also caught a car that started 2 minutes in front of us in stage 5.
Stages 6 and 7 were quite nerve racking as we knew all we had to do was finish, every noise and movement the car made worried us, but in the end it all came good and we finished. 1st in class and 63rd overall, this meant we claimed the Nicky Grist Trophy.
As well as this I won the Michael "beef' Park award, for being the highest placed co-driver under 23. And the class win puts me and Matt joint 1st in the English rally championship too.
Thanks to Chris Huish for the photo (http://www.chrishuishrallyphotos.co.uk)
