THE Derry/Londonderry-based John Mulholland Motors Ulster Rally on Friday and Saturday, August 19-20, began as a challenging event for the Spencer Sport Rally Team of Llandysul.

But turning adversity into determination saw Tom Cave and co-driver James Morgan fight back on day two in order to retain their second place (silver position) in the MSA British Rally Championship standings.

Once again, the Spencer Sport team fielded two cars: a Ford Fiesta R5 for the Welsh pairing of Cave and Morgan, together with a similar specification Mitsubishi Mirage for local-to-the-event crew Garry Jennings and co-driver Rory Kennedy.

A highly successful pre-event test meant that both crews had an opportunity to set up and shake down their cars in readiness for the two-day, 14-stage rally that comprised three stages run twice on Friday and four stages run twice on Saturday covering a total of 134 competitive miles.

For all crews, the wet conditions for the opening loop on Friday afternoon was to make tyre choice for the slippery roads a critical factor. But a steady start on their highly effective Michelin tyres saw Cave and Morgan end the first stage in fifth place. However, contact with a hidden rock on the edge of the road in the second stage resulted in a front offside puncture. Having only lost 30 seconds, the chance of a fifth podium result was still a possibility – until stage four, when a broken driveshaft following a spin meant that the Fiesta was relegated to two-wheel-drive for Friday’s remaining two-and-a-half stages. Frustratingly, this saw a further loss of four minutes.

With a lot of public and media attention focused on them before the event, Jennings and Kennedy were eager to impress in what was the first outing for the latest facelift version of the Mitsubishi Mirage, but the difficult conditions were not the best way to learn the limits of an unfamiliar car.

Whilst still learning the braking, power delivery and handling characteristics of the car, matters were made even more challenging for the former Irish Tarmac Rally Champion when turbo issues started to manifest themselves.

Once back in the service area after the six Friday stages, Spencer Sport engineers investigated what had been causing the loss of boost, but being unable to rectify the problem meant the team had no choice but to reluctantly retire the car.

On the other side of the awning the more straightforward repair of the Fiesta was carried out before the overnight parc ferme, enabling Cave and Morgan to restart on Saturday morning with their car running at 100%, albeit now in 23rd place.

With a strategy to drive as if they were in their usual position at the front of the field - but without taking too many risks - and then see what they could achieve.

Cave and Morgan immediately started to make up places and, during the course of day two’s eight stages, they went on to set two second-fastest times.

It was an impressive fight back in continually changing conditions that eventually rewarded them with 10th place overall and importantly, eighth of the British Rally Championship competitors – a result that enabled them to retain second place in the standings.

Winners of the event were fellow Welshmen Elfyn Evans and Craig Parry, their victory enabling them to secure the British Rally Championship title with one round still to go. Swedish Mitsubishi Mirage crew Robert Blomberg and Lars Andersson scored their third consecutive win in the BRC National Rally Cup, and now edge closer to winning the category title.