By Paul Evans
This weekend’s Rally Chile might be a brand new event for the FIA World Rally Championship, but Elfyn Evans reckons the stages are not too dissimilar to Wales Rally GB, as he aims to get his title bid back on track after crashing out in neighbouring Argentina.
The break between the two South American rounds was never going to be a holiday for the M-Sport team, although the mechanics had more work than they’d hoped for when they had to rebuild Evans’ EcoBoost-powered Ford Fiesta WRC, after it hit a massive boulder and rolled out of Rally Argentina.
Chile, the 32nd country to host a round of the WRC, will be a level playing field for competitors, as everyone will have the same amount of experience of the event – zero!
It will also make the pre-event recce more important too, as Evans and co-driver Scott Martin will start their pace note making process with a blank sheet of paper. And this could play to Evans’ strengthens, as he is notoriously good at making new pace notes – for example, more than half of the recent Tour of Corsica route was new this year, and only a puncture on the final stage prevented him winning.
“This is going to be a brand new experience for everyone,” says Evans. “It’s rare to have to write completely new pace notes, but I’m looking forward to the challenge.
“Logistically, it’s also a massive challenge for the team, especially when someone damages the car on the previous event! A big thanks to the mechanics who have been working to repair the car, and hopefully we can repay them with a strong result this week.
“Looking at the video, the stages don’t look too dissimilar to Wales – medium width, flowing and technical. They look really nice to be fair, but we’ll be better placed to judge after the recce.
“Before then, we’re spending some time in Santiago with Pedro [Heller]. We’ve been up to the Andes and we’ve also been out on the bike. It’s a really beautiful landscape and I look forward to learning more about the country – hopefully Pedro can give us a few tips about the rally as well!”
Based in the harbour city of Concepción, Rally Chile will feature stages taking place mostly in the surrounding forests, along with some more open sections that have with views of the Pacific Ocean. The roads are expected to be compact and fairly smooth compared to the Argentinian round, as well as cambered in places.
The 16 stage, 190 stage mile event, begins with a ceremonial start in Concepción’s Plaza de la Independenzia on Thursday evening, where thousands of fans are expected for a colourful celebration, before the action gets underway on Friday with two loops of forest stages in the south.
The loop includes the longest stage of the rally, the 19 mile El Puma test, described as the ‘Ouninpohja of Chile’ in reference to Finland’s classic stage.
The technically complicated but fast, cambered roads will be a real challenge for the crews.
The city will then get its first taste of competitive WRC action with an evening street stage. Saturday has another loop of three stages run twice, this time closer to the city.
There are four more stages to close the rally on Sunday. The day begins and ends with the Biobío stage, named after the country’s second biggest waterway, the Biobío River, closeby, with its second pass as the Power Stage.