Development Year

2020 has been difficult for everyone. I feel like I am in a very fortunate position. I have my health, despite a brief break I am still in work, my family are all healthy, and I have a nice roof over my head that I'm able to share with the love of my life. But despite all of these blessings, I have still struggled. At first the lack of an hour and a half commute and 5:30am alarms was great, but after a while I felt myself going a little crazy, suffering from cabin fever, working from home and very rarely leaving the house. I don't feel I have the mental stimulation that I require, which leads to other issues. An inability to sleep, a build up of anxiety, unable to switch off from work, and all whilst I've been unable to do what I enjoy, my release. I have struggled with mental health, like I think everyone has to a certain extent. I think the most difficult part, is the unknown.

When will I next be able to do a rally? I don't have that event to look forward to, to work towards, and that's what gives me my drive in life. The last event when I was driving, was the championship win, back in October 2018, over two years ago. In 2019 I spent the year becoming financially stable, following the wallet beating national championship year, and then saving up to be able to get a new car, to make a step up. A year ago tomorrow we picked up the Subaru from Magherafelt, Northern Ireland. Hard to believe it's been a year already. Unfortunately I have only had the chance to use it properly once, at the test in January, before the world went on hold.

It would have been very easy during this time, to just stand still and patiently wait for the world to return to normal. But in life regardless of what is thrown at you, you have to keep moving forward.

I've taken inspiration from a number of different places, listening to other peoples stories, struggles and advice has helped me to focus on pushing myself in the right direction. One thing in particular, that I would highly recommend, is the Stage by Stage podcast, by production world championship winning co-driver Trevor Agnew. The series analyses what it takes to be successful, and what it means to have a winning mindset, and it has really helped to give me clearer direction on where to focus my efforts.

For me there have been a few areas of improvement. The first, was my health. All in all this year I have lost almost 25 kilograms, which according to M-Sport equates to 0.2 seconds a kilometre. That's going to be at least 20 seconds over the course of a rally, which could absolutely be the difference between winning or losing. My diet is much better than it was previously. In addition I've also been working on my fitness. In the first lockdown I started working out every weekday, and in the second lockdown, I've even started running, which for those who know me well, especially those that I went to school with (which was the last time I was forced to run) would not believe! I can confidently say that I am the fittest and strongest I've ever been. My Haynes Guide to Motorsport Fitness has been ever present on the coffee table, and has been read cover to cover numerous times. In my mind, I want to be as ready as possible when I do get back behind the wheel, and feel like I've done everything I can to be one step ahead of the competition when I arrive at that first event.

The other area to work on, as always with motorsport, was the car. Nothing is ever perfect, and work can always be done to improve. When I bought the car, on initial impressions it was immaculate and on the outside it absolutely was, but as I started to peel back the layers, I identified a number of areas that I wanted to improve.

At first it was small tweaks and refinements, tidying things up, removing weight wherever possible and setting things up to my liking. But as it became apparent that the pandemic was not going to be short lived, I bit the bullet and went for some more substantial changes such as the subframes and suspension components you can see below. Replacing the main base of the car. To some people who are not that into motorsport, their first question may be something along the lines of "what was wrong with the old ones?" or "did it not work well before then?". The only answer I can give is no, it was brilliant before, but in the future it will be lighter, stronger and better! Like I've said to some people before- "What do you do when your new car is working fantastically well? Take it all apart!", I must be mental.

The car has been coming along nicely and is now as immaculate underneath as it is on the outside. I've even treated it to a new set of "the right" wheels (see below). I've been working lot's and investing more and more into the car, making sure that when we're all allowed to go out and play again, the car will be much better and more competitive than before. I cannot wait to do an event in it. Must. Be. Patient.

Fortunately, I have been able to get out for one event, and it was a very special one. Gary and I were very lucky to have been invited to compete at Goodwood Speed Week in the Celica GT4. A one off event put on behind closed doors to make up for the absence of the usual Festival of Speed and Goodwood Revival. The event was streamed live online and there were multiple shows on ITV and ITV4. As always with Goodwood, I found myself quite star struck, by both the cars and other competitors. We were in good company, with the likes of 1984 World Champion Stig Blomqvist, current world championship leader Elfyn Evans, Rhys Yates and Osian Pryce to name a few. We even got the chance to have a long chat with Jari-Matti Latvala, who was naturally very interested in the Celica, one of my heroes.

The stage was very tricky, short but technical using the circuit, roads around the venue and also some gravel sections. It would have been easy to go wrong, but I managed to guide Gary correctly around the stages and with a fairly trouble free couple of days, we came home 6th overall in the competitive section of the event, only beaten by much more modern machinery, and even coming home ahead of the original Stig, who was driving an Escort Cosworth WRC.

Despite the event having a very different feel, no spectators, mask on at all times, and social distancing strictly enforced, it was a great relief to blow off some steam and be back in a rally car. It gave me a much needed lift. A big thanks to Gary for the opportunity. If anyone would like to see some of our antics, I'll link the video below, the commentator got a bit confused and gives our friend Ben Mellors all the credit, but it was Gary and I in the Celica, honest!

For now then, signing off. Hopefully soon I'll be able to provide you with a update for what my plans are for 2021. We'll see what happens. Fingers crossed that dates for next year will start to become a bit more concrete. But more importantly at the moment, I hope that everyone is safe and well, including all of your friends and family. Let's all make sure we stay sensible, especially over the festive period. Hopefully a vaccine will be upon us before we know it, and we can get back to doing what we love.

Before I stop typing to myself, I'd just like to use this as an opportunity to say thank you to those closest to me for all of their support to get through this difficult year- Maaike, Gary and Mum, you are all the support I could ever need, thank you!