Testing With a Trio of Greats

May has turned out to be a very busy month at Bont Rally Stage. We have managed the 2-mile tarmac stage for 5 years now and enjoy every moment, even in the wet cold weather that Wales attracts on a regular basis. A message from Matt Edwards (MERallySport) earlier in the month heightened our mood with a request for a driver coaching and shakedown day with Nicky Grist and his lovely ex-works Toyota Celica GT4 St185. The crew we greeted in West Wales with the only dry test day we have had so far this year which made a perfect opportunity for some decent marketing content as well.

Three times British Rally Champion and once Welsh Forrest Champion, Matt has achieved 52 class wins and 25 total victories so far in his career and is taking on the Irish Tarmac Championship in 2024 with a Fiesta Rally2. A very experienced driver, he is well versed in teaching club level and pro level drivers the ins and outs of the world of rallying. For Matt and Nicky, the main focus of the day was driver improvement, with 2-miles of undulating, twisting tarmac, Bont was the perfect location.

Whilst they focused on driver improvement, Don, Nicky’s mechanic, an ex-works Toyota mechanic focused on ensuring the car ran smoothly all day making minor changes and ensuring the freshly built engine and gearbox was going to play ball, hopefully for the rest of the season. As you can imagine, sourcing parts for an early 90’s GrpA car can be quite a task and the chaps have been sourcing many parts from Germany. This genuine ex-works car was not actually co-driven by Nicky in period. Carlos Sainz took a 3^rd with this chassis in 1992 at Rally Australia whilst Didier Auriol competed in 1993 Swedish Rally only to be excluded after the team serviced the car during a road section due to an engine oil leak. The car then competed briefly in Sweden in 1994 before reappearing in Ireland with David Greer to take on Irish tarmac during the 98-99 season, notably with a 1^st on the Fastnet Stages Rally in 1998. The car continued competition in Ireland with various drivers until 2010. Johnny Milner drove the car at the Alan Healey Memorial Rally in 2017 taking a class win and 2^nd overall. Nicky entered the silly seat alongside Juha Kankkunen for Rally Trasmiera in 2018 having purchased the car earlier that year.

Nicky is still retired from professional work but has a true passion for rallying and enjoys show events with the car. His Co-driver stats obviously make for impressive reading with 230 starts, 45 class wins and 28 overall victories. He’s a regular at RallyDay and a huge fan of Eifel Rally Festival, both of which he will attend in 2024. I was reluctant to ask about Nicky’s past during our many chats on test day as so many do already during interviews, and showing the man he is, Nicky was just as interested in asking questions about what we do. We talked about some Golf and his hometown of Abergavenny where my grandparents lived and my mother grew up. We talked business and how well NG Motorpsorts is doing, especially with their new push on marketing via social media which has seen a clear increase in turnover for the ever-growing company, partly in thanks to is Social team including Ellie who was with us for testing getting some great coverage.

As expected, run and funded by a professional outfit, the Mighty GT4 ran faultless all day. Matt is a regular at Bont but it was Mr. Grist’s first time at the venue and he loved the challenge of the track and the beauty of out Welsh backdrop. The two guys swapped seats throughout the day which produced some brilliant banter in the paddock between sessions. We maybe able to entice them both to our Ceredigion Rally icons event on Saturday August 24^th! We look forward to seeing them both again soon. What a treat!