The rare clubman chance to sample Rally1 life

Gone are the days of the Ford you saw Colin McRae drive now being pedalled by a national hero in their local championship.

Or said national hero taking their World Rally Car to their home World Rally Championship round and competing directly against the world’s best.

Rally1 cars just aren’t available to the clubman competitor like previous generations top-class machines were, because the prices are simply too high. The privilege of driving one is therefore reserved for manufacturer drivers only, or select few wealthy individuals like Jourdan Serderidis or Lorenzo Bertelli.

But not last week. On Wednesday – a day before Adrien Fourmaux’s exit from the team was to be confirmed – M-Sport opened its doors to the UK’s Asphalt champion, who was about to get the opportunity of a lifetime.

The chance to drive a Ford Puma Rally1 Hybrid – for free.

Seeking to defend their Asphalt Rally Championship title from 2023, 2024 had looked to be a tricky season for Callum Black and co-driver Jack Morton. Mechanical trouble on the opening round, and mechanical retirement on the second, left their championship defense looking pretty desperate.

But the Englishmen hunkered down and won all four of the final four events in their Ford Fiesta Rally2 to secure a second successive championship. And that’s when it hit them.

“Literally, when Jack and I were driving on the road section on the way back, having won the championship, it was like, ‘wow, we’ve got this to look forward to now!'” Black tells DirtFish.

“For us it was just a case of heads down, try and win the championship and then obviously if we get the opportunity to do the test, that would be fantastic. But the moment you start thinking ‘I’m going to be driving a Puma’ then it all goes wrong doesn’t it?”

Thankfully it didn’t – nor did it on the day, either. Black candidly admits his only target was to not stall, spin or crash the Puma Rally1, but he avoided any dramas.

Driving the car Grégoire Munster drove to fifth place at Rally Japan less than a fortnight earlier, Black enjoyed around two hours of running at M-Sport’s test track.

“I was a bit apprehensive going in there knowing that you’ve got to drive it properly and you’ve got to pay attention, you’re not just jumping into a clubman rally car, it’s a proper bit of kit,” he says.

“I’m not going to lie, I was nervous of stalling it and I managed not to stall it once, so I was pretty happy with that. It was a bit daunting, but I had Alex, one of the engineers, come out with me for the first like half a dozen laps to talk me through it, and we were in road mode.

“Then we went back in, took the rad blank out, went back out, put it into stage [mode], and then did like a couple of launch controls. And it was all relevant in some ways and relatable to the Rally2 car. It was all very methodical.”

But absolutely nothing can prepare you for the savagery of a Rally1 car on full boost.

“Your brain can’t quite keep up with how fast you’re going,” Black grins. “It was a surreal sort of feeling. I’d say that blew my mind, the launch and how quickly you got there. It was almost like being on a roller coaster, is the only way I can really explain it.

“I said to the engineer it felt like I wasn’t driving the car, I was sort of above the car. It sounds weird, but yeah it’s like I wasn’t in total control of it. But then your brain weirdly seems to acclimatize. I took 10-12 passengers out throughout the day and by the last one, I was up to speed with it, so it’s incredible how your mind works and processes it all.

“But yeah, that first one was just like, ‘F***, this is cool!’.”

The quickest car Black had driven prior to the Puma was an ex-Hannu Mikkola Group B Audi which gave him some frame of reference. But adapting to the nuances of hybrid was “niche” according to the 33-year-old.

“I’ve driven a fair few rally cars or sports cars and stuff over the years, but I’ve never driven something with hybrid that has that raw power – it really made your head spin the way the hybrid was active and kicked in,” he says.

“I think it’s after 75% throttle the hybrid comes in and there’s no way of ever having that feeling prior to that. So I can see why a lot of the drivers struggled initially when they first drove them because it’s just a weird sensation, but a cool one.

“It shows on the dash the percentage of hybrid that you’ve got going on. Basically in what would be the equivalent of being on the road section, I did a couple of cool-down laps and then a warm-up lap, and you can see it regen. That’s pretty cool.

“That’s the other thing…” Black continues, getting into his stride as he still attempts to come to terms with the experience he’s had, “under braking, regenning, it’s pretty cool but also weird.

“I’ve experienced it in a road car where it will regen under braking or even when you come off the throttle and it will slow itself down. But this was like, again, another strange sensation that you could feel another force come into play that you hadn’t previously experienced in a rally car.

“You’re braking, which is your own input, but then there’s a further force that you’re not in control of. It was just a bit strange. But, you know, at the same time, really cool.

“I think within a few laps you got used to it, but before I went it’s something I didn’t even think about. I just thought it would all feel very normal, like applying a throttle and you get an extra boost, but it’s just a different sensation.

“I feel very privileged really to be able to drive it. Not many people get that opportunity.”

But now he’s got the hang of it, when’s the press release coming out confirming Black as an M-Sport Rally1 driver for 2025…?

He laughs: “There’s all these fan pages and stuff and a few people are tagging me. No guys, there’s a lot of people in that queue ahead of me!

“We’ll see what happens next year, but we’re working on a few stuff,” he says on a serious note. “I used the day to be able to take a couple of sponsors out with me, which was invaluable really, because hopefully I should be able to get some sort of backing out of that, which would be nice.

“We’re working on something to do BRC [British Rally Championship] next year, but we need budget to be able to do a full season, so we’ll see.”

Callum would like to thank Malcolm Wilson, Richard Millener and Tom Krawszik from M-Sport in particular, as well as Paul Morris and Donna Preston from the Asphalt Rally Championship for making his test day happen.