Well, a week after Yorkshire and I’m still British Rally Champion, so I guess it wasn’t a dream after all. It certainly seemed like one for a while, in fact since we won the first round in March it has been a fairytale year.

At the start of the year it was my ambition to become British Rally Champion, but, realistically I never thought that we could manage it at the first attempt. That win in Wales had us thinking that maybe, just maybe, it was possible.
Winning the Pirelli Rally in Carlisle was another major boost, but we were not letting ourselves get too excited about the prospect yet because the way the championship is structured even if we won the first 4 rallies we were not guaranteed championship success.
We came agonisingly close to winning our third International Rally at Jim Clarke, having fought back from our second stage puncture, but after a wrong tyre choice I decided it was better to finish second than not at all.
Going to the Isle of Man, there was no pressure on us, as nobody would have expected us to beat Mark Higgins there. We led the rally after 2 stages and began to stretch our lead before the rear diff cried enough. The time loss involved meant that we were settling for second place very early, but the Higgins had problems and there was a chance to win again and we attacked and led the rally again briefly but then suffered a puncture, but still managed to finish second.
In Ulster the dream continued as we built a nice lead over the opening stages, but, the dream became a nightmare on stage 6 when we had a high-speed accident but were lucky to escape with damage to one corner of the car.
Yorkshire was going to be the deciding rally in championship terms. In reality we had known this since the Isle of Man. It was difficult to decide on a strategy for the rally! I normally start out at a pace I’m comfortable with and then increase if necessary. This was my stated intention for Yorkshire.
On the morning of the event I decided that maximum attack on the first stage might be better. I omitted to tell anybody else of this including Greg. On the first 2 thirds of stage one I pushed as hard as I could and Greg reminded me on occasions that we should be more careful. Over the last third of the stage I eased slightly, but the work had been done and we led Higgins by over 13 seconds after the first stage. I knew now that I could control the rally. I had no interest in beating Gwyndaf Evans, who was not registered for points.(I have tremendous time for Gwyndaf, as at the end of last years Rally Yorkshire when we were 3rd, he came over to me and shook my hand and said “I never heard of you before, youngfella, but well done, great drive!”)
For the remainder of the rally I drove well within myself and on the later stages the hardest thing was to remain focussed on the stages as the mind was inclined to wander and think about the championship.
Then we were on the final stage and every time I felt a vibration in the car I thought the worst and it was very difficult to concentrate but thanks to Greg we got to the stage finish and knowing that Mark had gone off we knew that we were champions. There were about 40 of my supporters at the finish and also the TV Crew. I could hardly talk because I was so ecstatic. I can’t really describe the feelings that were going through my mind.
I felt proud to have represented my country so well. I felt sad for Mark, to have gone off on the last stage of the year. I felt justified for deciding to do the BRC. I felt that I had paid a dividend to everybody that had put their faith in me. I felt that this was all happening to somebody else!
All of that evening and the following day I had to do loads of interviews and all I wanted to do was go home as we went directly home after all the previous rounds. When I did eventually arrive home on the Monday evening, the reception that greeted us was absolutely unbelievable!!  I knew that ‘a homecoming committee’ had arranged a ‘bit of a parade’.
Little did I know what was in involved or how many people would turn out for the occasion.
The parade left Cremin Coaches in Kealkil and went up to the village where there was about 300 people waiting. We then headed for Bantry with an entourage of about 80 cars and then back to Ballylickey. The amount of support that was evident on the route to and from Bantry was fantastic. When we got back to Ballylickey, a crowd of up to 2000 people were there and a stage had been erected for the purpose of speeches etc.
Throughout the whole evening there was such a spirit of goodwill it was incredible!
I was absolutely astounded at the level of support that we received from the community and wider audience that was present.
The following few days I didn’t feel so good, as I think being on the back of the truck in the freezing cold gave me the flu! Maybe it was also connected to the lack of sleep over a 2 week period.
Today,(Monday) is the first day that I’ve felt close to normal again and already the Pirelli Star Driver Shootout is upon us.
This will be my 3rd Driver Shootout in just under 12mths, so I think I could be forgiven for being less than enthuastic, given that I was the fastest driver on the last two, but did not progress! As I write, we do not even know the location of the shootout, but will be told at the last minute.

Promise I will update after this one!!