By Paul Evans
Having not competed since the middle of last year, Cameron Davies has re-launched his rallying career overseas – and has swapped the British Rally Championship for the Peugeot Rally Cup Iberica.
The series consists of six rallies in Spain and Portugal, and the 23-year old driver from Llandovery proved on the opening round that he has title winning potential, despite having been out of a rally car for 10 months. Add a few more new things into the mix, like new co-driver Max Freeman and having his car run on-event by PT Racing, instead of his usual team of family and close friends, and his Peugeot Cup debut was nothing short of sensational.
After the first three stages of the new series, Davies led the Peugeot Rally Cup on the recent Rally of Portugal – with another fastest stage time extending that advantage to 26 seconds after SS4. In the overall standings, he had climbed up to 38th position and his comparative times would have placed him only 20 seconds off fifth in the Junior World Rally Championship category.
However, on the road section to SS5, his Peugeot 208 R2’s exhaust caught fire, with the delay landing Davies with a 30 second penalty and dropping him down to second – and then in SS5 a cracked wheel rim and subsequent puncture cost him a further two minutes. His dramas weren’t over, as a clutch problem cost him more time, as he eventually finished third.
“Admittedly I wasn’t feeling one hundred per cent confident coming into Rally of Portugal, having been out of the car for so long,” said Davies. “We had just been working so hard on getting everything sorted to get to the event. My aim was to finish inside the top ten.
“After the first three stages I didn’t know what was going on to be honest, I was looking at the results but still not believing we were leading, but I knew I had to keep a cool head.
“Despite our dramas, I was elated to finish on the podium – I really didn’t expect it, especially given the calibre of the competition. I came to Portugal with the aim of getting experience of a WRC round and building on that. To be in the mix from the beginning and battling at the top was amazing.”
Davies now feels a lot more confident going into the next round, the Rali De Castelo Branco, albeit aware of the challenge that lies ahead. As that event is on asphalt, there is plenty of work he and Freeman need to do in preparation, considering that many of the other drivers will have local advantage.
“I really would like to be able to get some more testing in this time to allow us to be on the pace from the off,” adds Davies. “It would also allow Max and I more seat time. He has been excellent, I could not have asked for more considering we have had extremely limited time together before the rally. We are really pleased with how things went on this event and have had a great result. It’s been a bit unreal, but this is rallying and there is always work to be done.”