My brief rally career

Over the coming months there will be many stories on here from my rallying days when i used to be a codriver. For now a brief overview of my career follows -

I started out doing 12 car navigational events in the Northern Exposure championship. First one was in 1995. In total I did 44 with 2 different drivers, getting 5 wins, 4 seconds and 7 thirds. I was first novice in 1995/96 and runner up overall with Paul Bunch in 96/97 and 97/98 seasons. Great way to learn maps and was great fun.

1997 - Started stage rallying with Chris Hodson in a mk2 Escort. First ever event at the Tour of Lincs Rally. Also did my first road rally with Paul Bunch in a borrowed mk1 Escort finishing 3rd novice.

1998 - Finished runner up in class in the Welsh National Championship alongside Chris Hodson. Also started doing a few more road rallies with Lee Bartlett in a Fiesta.

1999 - The year things started to change for me. Had 4 rallies with Richard Sykes in a Peugeot 106 when his regular codriver couldn't. Best result was 1st in class in Somerset where we were fastest on 11 of the 12 stages, the other we had a head on with a tree. Had a 1st overall on the Saw & Weld Novice Road Rally with Lee, winning by over 8 minutes.

2000 - Did the Peugeot Cup alongside Richard Sykes. Runner up on round 3 was best result but crashed out of the lead of round 4, which was my first roll. Did a one off rally on the Tour of Flanders with Robin Bolt, my first over seas rally and finished the year on such a high and an amazing experience when i finished 3rd in class alongside Sykes on the World Rally Championship Rally GB. A guy called Seb Loeb won the class, wonder what happened to him.

2001 - The experiences just got better and better as I went to Barbados for a weekend to do a rally there with my driver for the year Barry Mayers, finishing 9th overall and winning our class. Prize giving on the beach is the way to go.

2002 - Low key stage rally year but won the AWMCC Road Rally championship alongside Lee Bartlett with a 1st in class, a 2nd and a 3rd.

2003 - Won the Peugeot Winter cup alongside my new driver Stuart Jones. Started off with 5 rallies to earn the seat and we did 27 together this year, winning our class 9 times. We won our first ever Peugeot cup round and were also BTRDA class A6 winners. Low of the year was when we crashed out of both days of the rally in Scotland.

2004 - Amazing year. Peugeot 206 cup champion alongside Stuart, winning 3 rounds and being fastest crew on over half of the stages. We won the title on the final round when we lead from stage 1. BTRDA A6 runner up thanks to Robin Bolt and voted Wolverhampton & South Staffs car club competitor of the year.

2005 - Hard to follow 2004, but actually had one of my most enjoyable years in the most professional team I had the pleasure of being in when I was alongside Ed Stallard in the VRS run Mitsubishi Evo 8. Mixed year results wise but great experience. Helped Richard Sykes to his first Peugeot win on a one off winter cup outing.

2006 - Won the brand new Fiesta Championship with 2 wins and 2 seconds alongside Chris Moore. The championship went to the last stage where our main rival crashed and we needed to finish 2nd, which we did by .8 of a second. Also won the ANCRO Clubmans championship and finished the season with an outing on Rally GB.

2007 - Turned out to be my last full season. Finished 2nd codriver in the Fiesta championship alongside Elfyn Evans, son of Gwyndaf. High pressure season with mixed results including a very big accident. Finished the year with an amazing class win on the Rally GB, winning our class by 5 minutes.

I then quit the sport for reasons which will come out in later blogs. I've only been tempted back out on a road rally with the late Paul Adams and on single venue events with Ken Moore in his Subaru.

I'd like to thank all my drivers along the way for the great experience and chances given to me, there family's who always made me welcome, the teams I was in, all the mechanics who had to fix the cars, all the championship and event organisers, the speccys who have got us out of holes and all the fellow competitors I had the pleasure to meet. I've been very lucky to meet a lot of great people.

All my drivers - Paul Bunch, Chris Hodson, Shane Gamble, Lee Bartlett, Richard Sykes, Mark Gamble, Pat MacArthur, Robin Bolt, Barry Mayers, Simon Rigsby, Mandy Twynham, Alan Doncaster, Olly Marshall, Stuart Jones, Shaun Woodhouse, Ed Stallard, Chris Moore, Nick Edwards, Elfyn Evans, Paul Adams, Ken Moore.