On a day of competition across some of the World Rally Championship’s fastest roads Scott Pedder has flown in his Ford Fiesta R5, grabbing a string of top ten class times, and marking the best day yet in his WRC2 campaign.
Heading into the day’s action Pedder had predicted that it would be a hard slog with his rivals having a technical advantage. “We’re running just the standard gears, where as the top guys all have a long gear ratio for these fast roads, so we’ll probably struggle,” said Pedder yesterday.
But his fears were to prove largely unwarranted as he and co-driver Dale Moscatt began to show their full potential, opening their account with a sixth fastest WRC2 time on the opening 17.70 kilometre Mazury stage.
“The day started off really well, great feeling in the car and really happy with the stage time!” exclaimed Pedder.
Pushing hard on the next stage, keen to continue on with his first stage form, Pedder spun and then stalled his Fiesta. “It was a tricky braking section that had become incredibly loose from the World Rally Cars. I could see lots of the other WRC2 guys had spun, a couple had gone off into a field,” he explained.
Over the next three stages Pedder was able to recapture the early morning form, grabbing an 8th, 7th and 10th fastest WRC2 time on each of the stages, before organisers intervened on Special Stage 14 to cancel the test due to safety concerns over spectators.
On the last proper stage of the day a sudden drop in the wind saw incredible dust hanging in the air with Pedder finding the going incredibly difficult and dropping over forty seconds to his rivals. “It was so thick, in places you couldn’t see a thing!” said Scott.
“Overall though I’m really happy with how today went, we set some good stage times. It’s hard to judge your pace against the top WRC2 drivers, particularly the Skoda’s, because they are setting times as quick as the World Rally Cars.”
“So I look at Jari Ketomaa, he’s in the same car and on the same tyres as us, and we were matching his times on a lot of stages, so that’s incredibly positive,” Scott added.
“It wasn’t a perfect day though, we had a few niggly issues with the car. The steering rack just doesn’t feel right, which is probably a carry over from the power steering problems we had yesterday. It’s not effecting my times but it’s annoying none the less. Also the (turbo) anti-lag was acting up. Little things, but without them we might have gone even faster.”
The third and final Leg of Rally Poland features just two stages, a repeat of the 14.6 kilometre Baranowo. “It’s a pretty easy day, a late start and an early finish. It’ll be really good to properly finish our first WRC event this year and drive over that podium!” Pedder continued.
WRC2 Rally Poland Results After Leg Two
1. Esapekka Lappi / Janne Ferm (Skoda Fabia R5) 2h17m16.6s
2. Pontus Tidemand / Emil Axelsson (Skoda Fabia R5) +37.7s
3. Karl Kruuda / Martin Järveoja (Citroen DS3 R5) +2m04.2s
4. Jari Ketomaa / Kaj Lindstrom (Ford Fiesta R5) +4m35.3s
5. Armin Kremer / Pirmin Winklhofer (Skoda Fabia R5) +4m52.8s
12. Scott Pedder / Dale Moscatt (Ford Fiesta R5) +16m38.7s
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