Emily Easton-Page and Liam Clark had a very lucky escape in a dramatic day at the Nicky Grist Stages.
Chasing points in the BTRDA Gold Star Championship, the pair were looking to make it three podiums in a row on the mid-Wales event.
But an accident on stage two left their Fiesta Rally2 up-ended at the side of the track, with only a deep rut stopping it – and them – from tumbling down a steep ravine.
“We were very lucky, it could have been much, much worse,” explained Emily, the 2300 Club’s John Easson Award winner.
“It was a square right, but in the DVD we looked at beforehand, you couldn’t see how deep the rut was. When we arrived at the corner, it pulled us in and then spat us out, leaving the car nose-in, perpendicular to the track.
“There was no damage to it, but there were no spectators and only two marshals, so the car was going nowhere. However, if we hadn’t got stuck, we would have ended up down the hill side. Another competitor, Scott Walton, wasn’t as fortunate, and his accident was horrific.”
Emily and Liam took two maximum times for stages three and four as the car was recovered, before re-joining the event under ‘SuperRally’ rules.
“We decided to go back out and finish the rally for several reasons, said Emily.
“You only get one point for a non-finish, whereas we will pick up more for getting to the end. And, we really didn’t want to put the car on the trailer and go home early. As it turned out, we had a good run to finish, and got some more mileage and more experience under our belts.”
Despite being classified as last, Emily was philosophical about the result.
She said: “We’ve had a really good run so far this year, but the law of averages says you’ll always have at least one bad day in a season – hopefully this will be the only one.”
Emily Easton-Page would like to thank
2300 Club John Easson Award
Motorsport UK Academy
