Tom Cave eager to start

Welsh rally driver Tom Cave is raring to go, as the 2013 MSA British Rally Championship finally gets underway next weekend, on the Pirelli Richard Burns Foundation Rally. Following the cancellation of the first round, the Morris Lubricants Rally of North Wales due to bad weather, the season finally gets going with ten stages in the infamous Kielder Forest.

With the cancellation of the first round, many BRC competitors elected to compete on events across the UK as a warm-up to the Pirelli, renowned as one of the toughest challenges in the UK calendar. Tom and new co-driver Ieuan Thomas took part in the Somerset Stages, the third round of the BTRDA series and enjoyed a problem-free run, to win the 2WD class.

Looking ahead to the start of the 2013 BRC season, Tom knows that to achieve the success he is targeting this year will be no easy task. The level of competition is likely to be incredibly high, particularly with many quick drivers competing in Citroen DS3 R3 cars, similar to Tom's Morris Lubricants-supported example, which will be sporting the coveted number 1 for the first round.

Tom will be buoyed by both his performance on the Somerset Stages as well as on last year's Rally of Yorkshire, the final round of the 2012 BRC season, which he won. However, the winning margin of just 0.1seconds determined on a count-back to the winner of the first stage, indicates how close the competition is likely to be this year.

However, the Pirelli, running in the infamous 'Killer Kielder' forest, is also perhaps the event he feels is his biggest challenge. Despite having contested it three times previously and having reasonable knowledge of the event, he knows only too well how drivers can be caught out. In 2011, he hit a large rock in one of the fast forest stages and his event was over instantly.

Looking at this year's stages, they appear to be even faster, with an apparent reduction in the number of chicanes used to break up the stages and slow cars down. While this might faze many, Tom feels it could be an advantage.

"Looking at the DVD for this year's stages, it looks like there will be less chicanes in the stages which feature long straights," he said. "Hopefully, that will make it easier to find a good rhythm on the stages, as chicanes don't just slow the cars but they tend to wreck the flow of the stage as well.

"I think that we will have to push from the start - the competition is so close that there's no real opportunity to see what the overall pace is and judge yours to other drivers. So to succeed, you have to push from the off and make sure you don't make any mistakes.

"For us, a good podium position will be a good start - I want to get a decent haul of points under our belt to get the season going. Now the series is based on five scores out of six, there's very little room for error, so consistently scoring points will probably be the way to succeed. Any non-finishes are likely to be very costly."

The event begins with a ceremonial start in the centre of Carlisle on Saturday 4 May with six stages, run as two loops of three with a mid-day service halt at the rally base at Carlisle racecourse. Sunday sees four more stages, two loops of two before the crews arrive at the ceremonial finish in Carlisle at 13.00hrs.