Katie Milner was at Cadwell Park last weekend. Usually this wouldn’t be anything unusual; a racing driver at a racing circuit. Except this time she was there for a slightly different purpose as she was teaming up with her dad Jonny to take part in the Alan Healy Memorial rally.
Regular readers may remember that Jonny is a double British Rally champion (among other titles) so Katie couldn’t have anyone better to team up with for her first ever rally. Katie would be the co-driver or navigator, meaning she would be reading the pace notes for Jonny and making sure they were heading to the right places at the right time.
Their car was an ex WRC Toyota Celica which is actually older than Katie! But it’s still a very potent machine and would be capable of a top result in the event. All sorts of cars enter the event from classic old Ford Escorts right up to modern cars.
The first stage got underway at 9am and Jonny showed he had lost none of his speed, although a brief spin at the first corner (due to cold tyres) cost them eight seconds. That was soon made up and they shot into an early lead. With their rivals just seconds behind though, they would have to try and run flawlessly for the rest of the day as any further incident would almost certainly see them lose their small lead.
Katie soon got her head around reading pace notes rather than driving and they got quicker and quicker on each stage. But as expected, their rivals were still not far off their pace meaning their lead remained small.
They flew around the stages for the rest of the morning when the halfway point of the rally was reached when they remained in the lead.
Throughout the afternoon they remained in the lead and headed into the final stage with a small but useful five second lead. By now their tyres were well past their best but they just had to hang on for this stage and as long as their time was within 5 seconds of their nearest rivals, they would win the rally.
They flew through the stage as fast as their worn tyres would take them and then it was a case of waiting to see if they’d done enough.
To their disapointment, Chris West and Keith Hounslow had won the final stage and had snatched the rally win in the final stage! What had happened. Despite Jonny and Katie’s 5 second lead, their worn tyres had dropped them eight seconds on their nearest rivals in the final stage meaning they had lost out by just three seconds.
They were disappointed to have victory snatched away from them at such a late stage but at the same time they were happy to have scored a podium on Katie’s first ever rally. They also won their class. It was an excellent result despite the late disappointment.
“Well second place is all we could do in the end today, but what an amazing experience to sit alongside my Dad in my first rally!”
Jonny too, had clearly enjoyed the experience;
“This won’t be the last time you see us paired up..”
Katie’s attentions now return to circuit racing and her debut in the Ginetta GT5 Challenge at Oulton Park in Cheshire. She is on track on Saturday with the races on Bank Holiday Monday.
Her first season is a learning year but Katie will be pushing as hard as ever to get the best result she possibly can, as this rally showed, competitiveness runs in her family! By Marc Waller
