As Welsh rally ace Osian Pryce prepares to get his new season underway on Friday, here are his thoughts on the coming campaign in a special Q&A.
Starting with the Border Counties, how concerned are you that you’ve never competed there before?
OP: “I’m genuinely not worried about that. At the end of the day we’ll get the same two-pass recce as everybody else and what follows is a stretch of road to drive as quickly as possible along. That’s all there is to it, no need to overcomplicate it or over-think it.”
How did the deal with Hills Ford come along?
OP: “I was doing some tutoring with Will Hill, he’s the son of Tim Hill, one of the owners of Hills Ford. I got talking to them and we did a deal for last year’s Wales Rally GB. That was all a bit of a rush job and I don’t think anybody felt we did the best job possible – so the agreement carried over to the British Rally Championship. Hills Ford has been fantastic, not least because of their help in DDFT (Drive DMACK Fiesta Trophy) last year, but this year, they’re bringing Alphera, the team’s principal backer with them.”
Hills Ford, haven’t we heard of them in rallying before?
OP: “Absolutely, but you might better remember them as Brooklyn Ford. This was the team that was running guys like Gwyndaf Evans and Phil Collins in the British Rally Championship in the late Eighties.”
Who will be your biggest rival this year?
OP: “That’s a tricky one, there are so many good drivers out there to choose from. I guess Keith [Cronin] is probably the one, he’s got good speed and a championship-winning pedigree.”
You’ll be in the dark for the start of the season, quite literally. The first two stages of the 2017 Prestone British Rally Championship are a brace of nighttime runs through the Craik stage. Looking forward to that?
OP: “Absolutely. I love driving in the dark. I’ve done a bit of it on Rally GB and some other events. It’s a great part of the challenge and, as long as we’ve got the right lights on and they’re all set-up well, I love it – it’s such a sensory thing when you’re going 100mph between the trees in the pitch black!”
This year’s BRC goes to the world-famous Ypres Rally this year. Have you been there before?
OP: “I haven’t done Ypres before, so I’m really looking forward to it. By that point we will have had a few events in the car, so we should be more familiar with the Fiesta, the team and everything. I’ve heard so many stories about that rally, it’ll be fantastic to get out there and see what it’s all about. It’ll also be nice to be heading south, having driven up the M6 for the first three rounds of the BRC!”
You’re going to be running on DMACK tyres in the WRC, what about the BRC?
OP: “Yes, we’ll be using DMACKs all year. It makes a lot of sense for me to get used to the DMACKs in the BRC, so we’re fully up to speed for the world championship events. I worked closely with DMACK last season and it’s a great opportunity for me to continue a relationship with a young and dynamic company like DMACK.”
What about the WRC rounds, how much are you looking forward to them?
OP: “Massively! I’ve done Poland a couple of times and run well there – we were leading the class on both occasions before we had mechanical trouble – third time lucky this year! Poland’s a great place, it’s so quick. What’s really good is that it comes in the middle of three back-to-back events, so we start there absolutely match-fit.”
And Finland?
OP: “Finland’s just huge. There’s lots made about Finland being rallying’s spiritual home, but until you get there and fly a car flat-out through the air on the Ouninpohja stage, you just can’t believe how true that really is! This will be one of the highlights of the year as well as a gilt-edged opportunity to work with M-Sport.”
Finally, what about Wales?
OP: “There’s no place like home! When I was talking to Malcolm Wilson, he looked at our programme and highlighted the opportunity we had in Wales. Like he said, we come home on the back of nine rallies at a really high level. We’ll come home right on the boil and hopefully on the back of a very successful season. This year’s Wales Rally GB could be the icing on our cake!”