LIAM Clark admits that his meteoric rise in the world of rallying owes much to the driver he has been pursuing all season.
The sport is renowned for its camaraderie as they all take the same risks, face the same mechanical and financial problems and often end up chasing honours in the same events across the UK and further afield.
Clark, from Haworth, is in only his second year behind the wheel of a Fiesta, although both of the models he has campaigned are very different to the versions found in showrooms.
Last year, he drove an R2 - a modified 2-wheel drive model and explained: “We were runners-up in the R2 Championship and told ourselves we’ll have one year in the R5 and see where that takes us.
“The R5 is a four-wheel-drive, turbocharged 1600cc version - it’s fully works spec.
“The R2 is 170hp whereas in the R5 you’ve got 300hp underneath you - it’s a completely different animal.”
The uprating has enabled 24-year-old Clark to push hard among the overall leaders of the eight-round national BTRDA Series, including champion-elect Elliot Payne, a friend and rival from nearby Harrogate.
Payne, in a similar Fiesta, won this weekend’s Trackrod Rally seventh round 12 months ago, and stands on the verge of becoming the first driver in the BTRDA Championship’s 71-year history to win the title three years in succession.
Handbrake issues blighted Clark and highly rated Scottish co-driver Emily Easton-Page’s efforts at the most recent Woodpecker Rally but they still arrive at tomorrow’s five-stage North York Moors forests event, which finishes along Filey sea-front midway through the afternoon, fifth in the title race.
Despite two top three finishes so far - an ‘off’ in Mid-Wales during July - getting wedged on a bank - pushed the overall crown just out of reach.
Clark said: “Being our most local event, we are going all-out on the Trackrod and it would be great for both us and Elliot to finish on the podium as both cars are run by Alan Causey Automotive (in Carlisle).
“That’s not coincidence as Elliot and I are good friends and, if it wasn’t for him, we probably wouldn’t be in the car we are in now.
“It’s unusual for someone who hasn’t been rallying long to jump up into the car we’ve got.
“Elliot’s help, along with his dad’s (three-time Trackrod winner Charlie Payne), has guided us on to the right path and Al has set the cars up brilliantly.
“That means we can both be confident and that has shown by the results we’ve had.
“If it hadn’t been for the off on the Nicky Grist Rally and handbrake issue on the Woodpecker, we’d be even higher in the championship.
“But it is what it is and we’ll be going ‘full attack’ on the Trackrod.”
Clark, an agricultural salesman, speaks highly of his similarly aged navigator, who had the benefit of being awarded the ‘John Easson Award’, which helps promising young talent with funding.
Keeping up with the Jones’s …or Paynes in this case, is an expensive business and Clark explained: “The John Easson is a prestigious award and is intended to assist young competitor’s progress.
“That’s really helped as the cost of running this car and being competitive has been high and we’d love to get a little more help to enable us to have another go next year.
“If we can do enough to take the Championship’s podium places to the final round in Llandudno, then I’d be more than happy.”
Steeton’s Lewis Hooper, alongside his co-driver Rhys Edwards, campaigns in another less powerful Fiesta, thus contesting a different class to Clark, which he has thus far dominated.
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