He’s a four-time American champion – the defending champion – but this year Keaton Williams has swapped a Subaru race seat for a management role at Standard Motorsports.
In this week’s SPIN, The Rally Pod, the Briton talks through his decision to move into management slightly earlier than planned.
Dividing his time between Shropshire, England and Charleston, South Carolina, Williams will be working alongside Standard Motorsports owner Ryan Booth – one of America’s fastest drivers and far-sighted visionaries.
Williams said: “This year is a bit of a different story with Brandon [Semenuk, Williams’ driver] and I competing predominantly in Europe and a smaller program to what we’re used to. That opened up the doors for me to kind of go back to ARA. Me and Ryan sat down in early January and it worked its way out and… here I am today as team manager.
“The team manager position is something I’ve always wanted to do and I’ve been interested in doing, but kind of more so in the next 10 years – once I’ve hung up the co-driver’s boots. So, to have this opportunity early, I grabbed it with both hands to be honest.
“It’s another string on the bow. It’s more experience for me, but ultimately, this is not me giving up co-driving by any means. I’m still actively working with Brandon.”
Standard Motorsports is very much in the spotlight, with the announcement that it will run DirtFish Women in Motorsport Driver Aoife Raftery in a Ford Fiesta Rally3 and former WRC driver Tom Williams in a Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 at next week’s Rally in the 100 Acre Wood.
“Standard Motorsports has a huge facility,” continued Williams. “It’s like walking into a factory team. Everything is there, we’ve just had a new paint booth installed – Ryan has exactly the right mindset and the team has so much experience. There’s not a huge amount of teams which can offer an arrive-and-drive service [with homologated Rally2 and Rally3 cars]. Our idea is to help grow the sport – especially with people talking about WRC coming to America.”
And Williams would know all about factory teams, having enjoyed time at the top of the sport with Subaru and Vermont SportsCar and, of course, Toyota Gazoo Racing alongside Takamoto Katsuta – who inevitably comes up in conversation.
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