WELSH rally driver Sara Williams concluded her first foray into French rallying at the Rally Du Var 2017, the final round of the Clio R3T Trophy France Championship which ran through 14 twisting and tortuous tarmacadam special stages in the mountains above and around St Tropez.

Sara and co-driver Mark Glenerster travelled to the last round of the championship on the Tuesday before the race and spent a long day - from 7am to 7pm - on the Wednesday reconnoitring the stages they would later tackle at full speed both in the dark and in daylight.

The stages in the ‘Massif’ overlooking the French Riveria and the Mediterranean are very technical, with a vast number of fast flowing corners, and flanked by a lot of long drops.

Thursday saw another day of travelling around the stages to hopefully perfect the route notes needed to get the Renault Clio through the tests at top speed and without mishap.

That second day was concluded with a run through the longest stage of the rally, Le Plan De La Tour, a 32km blast that would require the ultimate in concentration and skill from both Sara and Mark.

The final task of the day was to meet up with the ASM Motorsport Team and re-familiarise themselves with the Clio R3T before heading off for the Le Muy shakedown before the rally start the next day.

The rally started on Friday afternoon, with three special stages to tackle – the first being the 7.5km Le Mole section in daylight, followed by the 10km Borme Les Mimosas stage in rapidly reducing daylight, before the final 15km section of the Collobrieres, run in total darkness.

Sara has had far less experience of stage rallying in the dark, and the Cols of the South of France are hardly the best place to learn the art, but she and Mark got through that final day’s stage a creditable eighth fastest, boding well for the rest of the three-day rally.

A fellow competitor was no less than nine-time world champion Sebastien Loeb. He and co-driver Daniel Elena were competing in a recently purchased Peugeot 306 Maxi and for Loeb this was home territory as he has a home near Sainte Maxime.

The Peugeot duo held second place early on, then first, before the unlucky 13th stage saw them retire with engine failure. However, it will have been a useful experience for Loeb before his rumoured return to rallying for a few events with Citroen next year.

Meanwhile, the Renault Clio R3T of Sara and Mark returned to Parc Ferme for the overnight stop at the end of Friday’s stages with the duo happy with their day one results. On Saturday, following a 30-minute routine car check by the ASM Motorsport crew, seven stages were awaiting. However the opener had to be cancelled because of an earlier incident. The Les Mimosas and Collobrieres were next to be driven before a return to the service halt. With the final two stages of the day looming it was now time to fit an auxiliary light pod to the Renault.

Stages seven and eight were completed without problems, but the planned final stage – Collobriers – had to be cancelled, leaving just a near 17km run through the Pignans test to close the second day, before a return to Parc Ferme for the overnight stop.

Four special stages remained on Sunday, the final day of competition. An early 7am start followed Service, and then it was into the 10km of La Garde Freneit, a taster for the stage everyone was waiting for, the second run through 32km Le Plan De La Tour.

Here Sara and Mark upped the pace from their first run on day two, setting fifth fastest time on the stage for the Clio runners.

Two stages now remained and the Welsh driver completed these with aplomb to finish ninth Clio in the event, just four seconds away from a seventh placing.

It means Sara succeeded in taking a very credible 10th overall in a hard-fought Renault Clio R3T French Trophy as well as third Junior Driver and First Female Driver.

Sara summarised: “A fantastic year in the Championship in which I have learnt a lot, going from a right-hand-drive, four-wheel-drive car on gravel to a left-hand-drive, two-wheel-drive car on some of the fastest tarmac stages in Europe.

“I am so grateful for the opportunity I’ve had this year, and I would like to say a big thank you to everyone who has made it possible, including Renault Sport France, ASM Motorsport, Millers Oils, Burnsides, Stema, Brecon Motors, Brecon Car Rentals, FIA women in motorsport and of course, last but certainly not least, my co-driver Mark.”

ROGER GALE