Win for Tom Cave on Rally Germany sets up thrilling season finale

Welsh rally driver Tom Cave, from Aberdovey, took his first rally win of the 2014 Drive DMACK Fiesta Trophy this weekend, on his first attempt at Rally Germany and his first asphalt rally in the FIA World Rally Championship. In doing so, he ensures he will form part of a thrilling two-way shoot-out for the overall title on the final round in Spain in October.

Tom was relishing the prospect of returning to asphalt, having last competed on the surface roughly a year ago. A successful pre-event test, combined with final preparations in Germany resulted in a confident feeling with his Morris Lubricants-supported and equipped Ford Fiesta R2.

Rally Germany, based in Trier on the banks of the Mosel River, uses narrow technical roads winding through the vineyards as well as those in the Baumholder military proving grounds. It also features a micro-climate where warm and sunny weather can quickly give way to wet conditions and vice versa.

The start of the event was relatively straightforward. Other than a small overshoot on the first loop, Tom enjoyed the stages and made several small adjustments to the car set-up for the second loop in the afternoon in the vineyard roads.

As it transpired, these worked well and Tom had a better feeling with the car, despite the dirtier roads on the second run through, with earlier cars pulling dirt and gravel into the road as they cut the corners.

Thanks to his pace and approach, Tom was in second place in the Drive DMACK Fiesta Trophy standings at the end of the day, behind Spaniard and four-time Rally Germany competitor, Yeray Lemes.

The second day took the crews through two vineyard stages to the infamous Panzerplatte stage and the fabled Hinkelsteins, or concrete blocks, which line the road, designed to keep tanks on the sealed surfaces.

The second stage of the day was cancelled following a car going off the road and damaging the ARMCO barrier. However, the forecasted rain arrived 7Km into the 42Km Panzerplate stage and Tom drove the remaining 35Km on dry tyres yet still managed to set the second-fastest time in the category.

By the time the crews returned to Trier for the mid-day service, he maintained second in class, with an increasing margin behind him to series leader Sander Parn in third.

The afternoon saw a re-run of the morning but this time, all four stages ran. All were damp with rain in the Panzerplatte stage again but Tom was able to set the fastest stage time in the DDFT on two of the afternoon's four stages to add two extra points to his weekend's haul.

The third and final morning dawned misty and cold but once the mist burned off and the sun emerged, temperatures began to rise. It was an eventful morning throughout the WRC field and this continued down to the DDFT. Quentin Gilbert, running under Rally2 regulations, took a narrow stage win over Tom on the first stage but the tables would turn on the second; Gilbert took another stage win but class leader Lemes suffered an alternator belt failure and was forced to retire from the event.

This promoted Tom to the lead with two stages to run and a clear margin of more than two minutes to Parn behind.

With the prospect of his first win of the season and on his first Rally Germany, he adopted a conservative approach for the two remaining timed tests to guarantee he would reach the finish ramp at the famous Porta Nigra in Trier as winner of the penultimate round of the 2014 DDFT.

Commenting, Tom said: "I'm really happy with this result. It has been a very tough weekend - my first tarmac rally in the WRC - so to win is a fantastic feeling.

"The rally has been very good - as I say, it was tough but I can take a lot of positives from it, not only the win. The pace was very strong and I learned a huge amount about weather, for example and how to get the best from the tyres. I think if we were to come back next year, then I would hope to be able to show even better pace with this experience.

"When I woke up this morning I didn't expect to win but it's been amazing. And now, with this result, the title will go down to the wire in Spain with Sander [Parn] so that will be interesting - I can't wait to get to Spain and see what we can do there."

The result does not affect the overall positions at the top of the series but the gap between leader Parn and Tom in second is reduced, ahead of the fifth and final round in October, Rally Spain. The gap between the two now stands at 29 points and with 43 point available in Spain, only Tom or Parn can now become 2014 Drive DMACK Fiesta Trophy champion and claim the seven-round WRC2 campaign in 2015 that forms the prize.