By Paul Evans

James Williams had an excellent build up to his European Rally Championship debut, enjoying a good test and then setting the fifth fastest class time on the qualifying stage of the Rally di Roma Capitale – but it all unfortunately went downhill from that point onwards.

Driving a new Ford Fiesta R2T, the 21-year old Newcastle Emlyn driver had only been three seconds slower than the fastest and more experienced ERC3 driver in qualifying, so he was hopeful of a good run when the rally got underway in the centre of Rome.

But it didn’t quite go to plan for Williams and co-driver Tom Woodburn, as they had to stop to change a puncture on the opening stage and then rolled out of the event on stage two.

“The first stage started great,” said Williams. “We set off with a good pace and finding the rhythm with the notes from the word go, but unfortunately, about five kilometres from the end of the stage, we picked up a front right puncture and had to stop and change it.”

“Stage two started well, with the rhythm in the car returning, but very unexpectedly we were sent onto our roof at an open hairpin right. Absolutely devastated doesn’t touch how I’m feeling for the team and sponsors right now. It was something that caught us by surprise and in a flash we were stopped wondering what had happened. The gutting thing is that we felt some very good speed in the car during the week and we weren’t quite able to extract that as a stage result. It was definitely there, so watch this space!”