October in the UK. Chilly, rainy, misty and muddy. Far from ideal if golf is your game of choice, but perfect conditions for rallying wouldn’t you say?
It’s hard to believe, but last weekend marked four years since the World Rally Championship last paid a visit to the forests of Wales. And, as with every year that has passed without Rally GB, I’m feeling a bit sad and full of nostalgia.
So for this edition of Girardo’s picture of the week, I’m taking you back to 2019 with a picture that sums up everything that was so brilliant about this event.
I mean, look at the state of that road. It’s a mud bath.
Headlights ablaze to see through that classic Welsh mist and drizzle, local hero Elfyn Evans slides and splashes his way through, painting another layer of dirt and gravel up the side of his Fiesta WRC in the process.
A pallet of colors like nothing else the WRC offers. Grays, greens, browns and blacks, with that rather fetching blue M-Sport livery the perfect compliment (by far the best livery of 2019, I’m glad we agree).
I can feel what it’s like to be there stage side. Cold, wet. Probably tired and hungry. But grinning ear-to-ear. For me, this is rallying.
So pardon me while I reminisce a little longer about my favorite event (and look through more of Girardo’s stunning collection), and let’s hope that one day soon we see Welsh mud caking WRC cars yet again.
Oh and, if you’re wondering, Elfyn took fifth place that weekend behind overall winner Ott Tänak, while in WRC2 Petter Solberg and Phil Mills rekindled the old magic to take a popular victory.
Ah, there goes my nostalgia again!
