Phil Mills’ Guide to the 2007 Wales Rally GB

LEG 1 - Thursday 29th November, 2007.

Shakedown Stage: Penllergaer Forest (3.9km). Start: 08.00
The first chance to see the rally cars and drivers in action will be during the official Wales Rally GB Shakedown Stage in Penllergaer Forest, which is the same location as in 2006.  It’s a good representative stage to give the cars a final run before the clocks and action, and the stage is 18kms from the new Service Area at SA1 Waterfront, Swansea. Start Ceremony: Law Courts, City Hall, Cardiff (19.30hrs)
The Ceremonial Start takes place outside the Law Courts in the centre of Cardiff – and with many of the former winners there to celebrate the 75th Anniversary of the rally, and the Winter Wonderland nearby, it should be a great occasion – and a great atmosphere.

LEG 1 - Friday 30th November, 2007.

SS1: Port Talbot 1 (17.41kms). Start: 09.53
We start the 2007 Wales Rally GB with a stage that is identical to S1/4 in 2006. The first section is very fast with long straights, big crests and sixth gear motoring for many miles. The middle section we know well; this could really catch people out because it’s very slippery in places, especially when we loop around the blue lagoon lake.  There are some big drops and the surface is extremely slippery as a thin film of mud on top on top of bed rock. The finish is a gradual descent and again very hard on brakes to the finish.  

 SS2: Resolfen 1 (25.08kms). Start: 10.41
A very difficult stage because it has four surface changes, with loose gravel, hard rock, strange mine waste and mud if it’s wet. Again this stage is identical to 2006. On this type of surface you really don’t know what to expect until you get there, as the weather conditions determine how slippery it is. The start is very fast up to a t-junction left where many crews have slipped off in the past, then it continues very fast uphill with flat-out blind crests and it is difficult to read the road accurately. There are some of the longest corners here in the WRC, they seem to go on sometimes for 600-800 metres and very difficult to make accurate pace notes for especially sometimes with as many as three or four apexes. It continues fast over the top of the mountain and last year there was one section where Forest Enterprise had been logging and there was a lot of mud. The one thing that’s certain is that Resolfen is a really challenging stage and the scene of many cars slipping off in previous years.  

SS3: Rheola 1 (27.91kms). Start: 11.39
Probably our favourite stage of Wales Rally GB! We have been fastest in this stage for the previous three years and it is a pure commitment stage – mainly downhill and it is all about braking in exactly the correct place to get a good time. Rheola is another long and challenging test and there are plenty of places to catch you out. Rheola contains Walters Arena – one of, if not the, best places to watch anywhere on Wales Rally GB.  The start is very fast uphill with some very narrow places between earth banks, then fast downhill with very tricky junctions especially Marcus Gronholm’s junction where he slipped off in his Peugeot 206 in 2001. Then uphill and to the highest part of the stage where if there is any fog around, this is where it will be! The downhill section is on black pit waste and very slippy into Walters Arena.  There is a very fast downhill approach, over a small jump and down to a 90 degree left hand bend with the lake straight in front of you. We always treat that left hander very carefully because we don’t want to get on first name terms with the rescue divers who are in the lake. After you’ve gone around that left hander you can really enjoy the rest of the arena, as there are some really nice flowing bends where the car gets sideways and a couple of good jumps where all four wheels are well off the ground. The atmosphere in Walters Arena is fantastic because there is always a massive crowd of spectators and you can hear the air horns from inside the car and see all the Welsh flags flying. After Walters Arena, there is a tricky downhill section, with some old broken tarmac sections through some muddy hairpins, to the finish on a slippy left hand bend on tarmac! It’s quite a special place.  

SS4: Port Talbot 2 (17.41kms). Start: 14.10
After service at SA1 Waterfront, Swansea, we’ll head back and repeat the three morning stages, beginning with Port Talbot 2.  For the rest of the day, we’ll have ruts and rocks in the middle of the road to think about – although avoiding them when you’re committed to a corner is impossible.  It’s too early in the event to ease off and you need a bit of luck and not break a steering rack or puncture a tyre.  

SS5: Resolfen 2 (25.08kms). Start: 14.58
There will be some retirements in here, as the repeat run through Resolfen could see some of the trickiest conditions of the entire event.  If it was slippy the first time through, it is likely to be worse the second time, and its here where skill, bravery and good luck all have to work together.  Whoever is fastest through Resolfen 2 will have earned it.  

SS6: Rheola 2 (27.91kms). Start: 16.23
A long stage to end a very tough opening day and will be run in the dark! The last section after Walters Arena should be quite spectacular at night as the brakes will be glowing red hot and the atmosphere will be fantastic.  We really hope that we don’t get any fog in the mid section.  This will make things very difficult and if we crash here I really don’t fancy spending the night in the dark!  Today’s route might only look like three different stages tackled twice, but competition-wise it’s the longest day of the rally and a really challenging start.  They’ll be lots of people glad of the superally regulation, which allows cars to re-start on Saturday.  I just hope we’re not one of them!

LEG 2 -Saturday 1st December, 2007

SS7: Crychan 1 (19.56kms). Start: 09.38
Leg 2 is exactly the same as last year, beginning with a classic Welsh forest stage. There are a couple of bad places just off the ranges with one very tricky junction 2.5kms from the start where we slipped off and got stuck last year! Then there is a very fast section – we’re in sixth gear for two and a half miles - into an unseen junction, which a lot of people overshoot.  Then it’s very narrow, down to a place the Scandinavians call ‘The Orange Road’ because of the colour of the pine needles.  Dry or wet, it’s very slippery – the last two miles you have to be so careful.  Our team-mate Chris Atkinson spun his Subaru Impreza down a bank in this stage in 2005 and retired from the leg, so it’s a stage that can really bite back.  

 SS8: Epynt 1 (13.76kms). Start: 10.21
There are some very long downhill adverse-camber corners near the start, and a lot of cars went off there last year.  There is a section of road up on the Mynydd Epynt area, which was built by the Military of Defence as a link road to avoid the live firing range which we used last year for the first time, where there is a spectacular new jump, appropriately named Paras Jump. It’s really odd up on the Sennybridge Training Area, because it’s the only place on the rally where there are no trees. It’s also one of the highest places on the rally, so it could be foggy. Our other 2005 team-mates, Stephane Sarrazin/Denis Giraudet, slid into a bank and retired from the leg on this stage. It is also a stage where military debris can also play a part and it’s not unusual to have a puncture with a brass shell piercing through the tyre!  

SS9: Halfway 1 (18.37). Start: 10.54
The first half of this stage is in a forest and the second is up on the ranges. There is a very tight hairpin left junction near the start, then it goes downhill to a right hander over a bridge.  Then there are a couple of jumps in the middle of the wood and you climb up through some open hairpin bends through a quarry and then it’s very fast all the way up to Dixies Corner. Dixies is a great place to watch because you can see so much. It looks a simple section of road, but as everybody knows it’s not and it catches a lot of people out.  We come out of Halfway forest and over a crest, which is on the asphalt junction of Dixies. There is huge jump there and we fly high onto a new gravel road, which runs parallel to the old asphalt road. It looks like drivers throw caution to the wind, but there is actually a big hole on the inside which a lot of people went into last year and did a lot of damage, so you have to be careful and take the right line.  The gravel road itself is wide and flowing, yet it’s also one of those bits of road where you have to be very careful and really think about what you’re doing. All that section, from Dixies junction and on for about a mile after it, is quite tricky and complicated for the driver, so anywhere along there is extremely good viewing.  After the asphalt the last five miles are absolutely flat out with very long corners and crests.  

SS10: Crychan 2 (19.56kms). Start: 14.47
After service at SA1 Waterfront, Swansea, we’ll be straight back into Crychan to do the loop of three stages again.  Road conditions, changeable weather and your position in the rally can make the afternoon stages completely different to the morning, even though you’re following our own wheel tracks.  

SS11: Epynt 2 (13.76kms). Start: 15.30
The re-run of Epynt is probably the stage that will cut up the most and be extra difficult the second time through.  The ruts can lift the car off line and onto the slippy stuff on the outside of corners and then it can become quite a problem. SS12: Halfway 2 (18.37kms). Start: 16.29
Another difficult stage the second time through especially this year as it will be run in the dark. The section past Dixies corner being the most difficult in wide open areas and not easy to read the road even in the daylight. We’re nearly always slower through Halfway the second time, purely because the conditions are trickier.  

SS13: Cardiff Stage (1.1kms). Start: 19.00
There was a fantastic atmosphere in the Millennium Stadium last year when we jumped in & landed on what is normally the pitch and power-slid our away around the figure of eight course in front of almost 25,000 spectators.  With the roof closed to keep out the December night chill, it’s the only in-door stage in the entire FIA World Rally Championship and for a Welshman like me to compete on a rally inside one of the world’s best sporting arenas, in the centre of Cardiff – well, it doesn’t get any better than that.  It’s not the longest stage on the event, but without a doubt it’s the most fun and hopefully we’ll be out to put on a great show, as last year we drove the stage with a broken steering rack!

LEG 3 - Sunday 2nd December, 2007.

SS14: Brechfa 1 (28.89kms). Start: 07.46
Brechfa is again an exact re-run of the 2006 stage. There is quite an unusual surface in Brechfa as its soil based, so exceptionally slippery in the wet and very abrasive in the dry.  Trees lurch into the road, so it’s a good place to break your windscreen. The start is fast and flowing with nice sweeping corners with big drifts everywhere, then after 10kms it starts to get very fast with long straights and difficult braking, it stays like this until the last 6kms where it gets quite technical and twisty with muddy corners and drainage ditches everywhere and easy to break a wheel. Viewing near the start of the stage is best, because it’s very open and you can see a long way.

SS15: Trawscoed 1 (28.24kms). Start: 08.33
This is the exact reverse of the 2006 stage, and the last time we did Trawscoed in this configuration was in 2004. The start is quite tricky with one left hand corner which has claimed some famous names in previous years, including Carlos Sainz. Then it goes downhill to a very tricky right hand bend over a bridge which many cars have had accidents on over the years. It then starts to climb uphill and gradually gets faster and quite narrow, the last section is very tricky with trees right beside the road edge and combined with a mud/soil base this becomes one of the trickiest sections of the whole event and a real sting in the tail if anyone decides to push too hard here!

SS16: Brechfa 2 (28.89kms). Start: 12.09
The roads in Brechfa are so smooth they hardly rut at all. In fact, the more cars that drive through it the more the surface polishes off, so it’s even more slippery the second time through.

SS17: Trawscoed 1 (28.24kms). Start: 12.56
Like Brechfa, the second time through it’s a lot more slippy, regardless of whether it’s wet or dry. You can easily get caught out in places which were fine only hours before.  It’s a very difficult stage to finish a tough rally on and they’ll be some swapping of places in here for sure.

Finish: City Hall, Cardiff. Start: 15.05
The finish ceremony this year moves to the outside the Law Courts in the centre of Cardiff, which should provide a spectacular finish the event, and the 2007 FIA World Rally Championship.

Service Area: SA1 Waterfront, Swansea