ARA series regular Nick Allen is genuinely lost for words. In the end, he finds one. It says it all. Wow. He’s just completed his first run aboard his all-new Ford Fiesta Rally3 and to say he’s stoked is an understated understatement.
Runner-up in last year’s O2WD category, he wanted to tell DirtFish a story at the end of LSPR in October. But he couldn’t do it. He couldn’t tell the story until the package was boxed up and on the boat from M-Sport in England to New York in America. And now, with the brand new car delivered, he’s ready to talk.
“I wanted to tell you at the end of last season,” he said, “but I wanted to really be sure it was happening. Now it’s here. And out of the box, this thing is… I can’t think of anything other than just, wow. It’s incredible. It does exactly what you want it to do.
Allen is ready to take on Rally3 master Olivares on this week's Rally in the 100 Acre Wood
“It’s really exciting to get the car delivered from M-Sport. We ordered a pretty extensive spares package to go with the car – it’s not like we can go to the local auto parts store and pick up a radiator for this thing. The whole experience of buying the car from M-Sport is super-nice and convenient and the set-up the car arrived in for gravel was amazing. I did a couple of clicks on the rear [suspension] and it was pretty dialled. It rotates on a dime, it’s amazing.”
Moving into L4WD for this season, Allen will face Javier Olivares, defending class champion and arguably the master of the Fiesta Rally3 in America.
“It’s super-cool how people can build and run these one-off cars in America,” he said. “But I wanted to go down a bit more of a spec route so I can track my progress. Javier and KJ [Miller, Olivares’ co-driver] killed it last year in their Rally3 – so my goal this year will be to beat them. They’ll be the perfect benchmark for me.”
