WELSH rally star Sara Williams – a literal title as the double winner of the British Women Racing Drivers Club Gold Star Elite award – rounded off her attack on the Renault Clio R3T France Trophy Cup rally series last week, again teamed with Patrick Walsh as co-driver.

Their ASM Motorsport Clio left them with mixed memories, on the rally that ran through tortuous asphalt overlooking the Gulf of St Tropez in the department of Var in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region. The Rally Du Var 2018 ran from the November 22-25, hosting the last round of the French asphalt rally championship around Sainte-Maxime, and the sixth and final round of the Renault series.

The event provided 14 special stages over the three days. The first day of the rally presented four special stages, three of them run in the darkness of the mountains, and that quartet of stages brought an encouraging progression for Sara and Patrick, seventh fastest Clio over the 7.5km of the La Mole daylight stage, repeating the position as they plunged into the darkness of the first run through the 10km of Bormes Les Mimosas. It was third time lucky on the 16.5km Fauville stage, elevating them to a strong fifth place, and that steady improvement continued as they sped though the night on the 20km of the Roquebrune-sur-Argens stage, finishing in a creditable second place in the R3T rally battle. It was a tough rally throughout, with very twisty mountainous roads, very wet and muddy. Friday’s stages were very foggy on the high ground, so bad that spotlights had to be turned off at some points for better viewing. It looked as though Sara would repeat her success from the 2017 rally on a route that was largely unchanged – though some 10km longer this year.

Saturday morning brought a further seven stages: the first two re-runs of the Mole and Bormes-les-Mimosa tests. An unexpected delay of an hour at the start meant an anti-climax for the crowd as the crews, waiting for the eventual go-ahead, lined up at the startline for the first run of the day.

Further drama followed as that long delay in the heat resulted in the Clio refusing to start, all electrical power inexplicably lost as they were called to the timing point! Frantic efforts from both Sara and Patrick eventually restored the electrical supply and they were able to take the start, though by then well out of their proper running order.

Ultimately they were able to regroup and fight back, steadily regaining lost places. By the time they crossed the finish line of stage 11, Collobriers, they had taken a fourth place, missing out on the third placing by a mere four seconds, after a day totalling abouth 80km of flat-out action.

The final day dawned with only three stages remaining, and with well over 70 tricky corners and hairpin bends awaiting them on the day’s opening stage, the 12th, it looked like being a risky opener. Sara set a rapid pace, the thought of how close she was to a podium finish being a great motivator, but – with the tarmacadam very slippery in places with mud dragged onto the road by the cars ahead – a momentary slip saw the Renault slide wide, suffering frontal damage that made continuing impossible. That unexpected conclusion to the championship year in losing a likely podium placing was disheartening, but the Welsh driver has set an increasingly competitive standard in her second year in the Renault Clio R3T Trophy Cup France, just missing a top 10 placing but again finishing the top woman driver in the series.