The addictive experience of racing a rallycross Supercar

On 3 July 2005, as an 18-year-old, I made my rallycross debut at Anglesey. With no prior mechanical knowledge and no family history of competing in motorsport, just getting to the event in a self-prepared car was, I felt, a huge achievement.

The main memory I have from that day is actually from the paddock. As I lined up for my first-ever practice session, Ford Escort rallycross Supercar driver Andy Grant pulled onto the pre-grid behind me. I was so excited to even just be lining up beside a four-wheel-drive, 600-horsepower rallycross Supercar. After all, Supercars are the creme de la creme of the discipline, the cars that all drivers aspire to sample.

Fast forward 16 years and, having largely given up competing in my own machines, through my career as a rallycross writer I’ve had amazing opportunities to undertake track tests in some of the best rallycross cars on the planet. Sebastien Loeb’s World RX event-winning, works-built Peugeot 208 in 2018 for Autosport, for example. That test was conducted at Lydden Hill.

In December last year I struck a deal to drive another Supercar at the birthplace of rallycross, this time an older-specification Ford Focus. But not as a track test - instead to compete in what would be the final round of the British Rallycross Championship 5 Nations Trophy – the pinnacle of rallycross in the UK.

The deal came together late. Isle of Man TT legend John McGuinness was making his four-wheeled debut in the same Team RX Racing-owned car on the Saturday of the double-header weekend and, with the seat vacant for the Sunday competition, I struck an agreement with owner Ollie O’Donovan. Fortunately, because McGuinness needed seat time, the Tony Bardy Motorsport-operated team ran a short test at Lydden on the Thursday before the event, where I also got to drive.

I’m not afraid to admit that my concerns were numerous. Doing track tests and being satisfied with not embarrassing myself while returning a car to its owner in one piece is one thing but, in that environment, there’s little pressure and nobody else on track to contend with. I was also aware that I’d been spoilt by driving some latest-specification rallycross cars. Take nothing away from the Team RX Focus, but it’s a little older, and I expected it to be harder to drive than the works-built Audis and Peugeots.

Hal Ridge in action

Photo by: Tom Banks

With Supercar being the aspiration of anyone competing in the discipline, I had to pinch myself at having the chance to actually race one, but was concerned about being seriously off the pace. When I raced in European rallycross with a Super1600 car we’d built ourselves, I knew it was under-developed compared to the others and thus it was all but impossible to know where my own level was at. Now any shortcomings would be highlighted in the biggest domestic arena.

The handful of laps I did at the test, in torrential rain, did nothing to dispel those fears. While sitting alongside Tony Bardy, a hugely accomplished driver himself, for some sighting laps, I genuinely thought, ‘I can’t do this’, as he launched the car at kerbs and rotated it on entry to the turns.

The 600bhp, 0-60 in two seconds acceleration and four-wheel-drive turbocharged sensation of a Supercar will never get old but, as I’d sampled this performance several times before, I forced my attention to be focused on the areas needed to find lap time, mainly braking and maintaining corner speed.

In what felt like monsoon conditions, I kept locking wheels, at one point almost stalling the engine under braking, and struggled to get the car turned in and to control it from getting too sideways on corner exit. O’Donovan, sitting in with me, was satisfied that I was on top of the car, but I got out of the Focus disappointed in my performance.

Primed for my first-ever Supercar start, I committed a sin that I chastise other drivers for regularly. As the ‘ready to race’ light went out on the start gantry, before the green lights had come on, I reacted – let go of the handbrake and clutch, and jumped the start

Only after my run did I discover that the tyres were very worn, but that knowledge didn’t help. I had no confidence. Driving home, I called two close friends and aired the contents of my desperately fried brain, including that I was considering reverting to right-foot braking, despite having left-foot braked for years. Fortunately, they talked some sense into me; and even more fortunately, the weather improved considerably for the weekend.

However, in McGuinness’s very first race on Saturday, the Focus’s right-front driveshaft broke on the jump landing, the car veered into the infield and rolled. Only the hard work of the TBM team meant that McGuinness could finish the event, albeit with the car looking a little second-hand. The Focus was then hurriedly reprepared for me to undertake a brief practice run in the evening.

But, with the rest of the field having been out on track all day, I was 4.927 seconds off the fastest British Championship runner (excluding the three World RX cars also in attendance). I felt that I’d been driving well within myself, though, and my pre-event concerns decreased somewhat. I was excited to get racing under way the following day.

Hal Ridge in action

Photo by: Tom Banks

In Sunday morning warm-up, I was seventh, just 0.035s off the fastest British Supercar runner’s time. The car felt so much more underneath me, I was hustling it into the corners more and gaining confidence with being earlier on the throttle to drive through the apexes. Despite being relatively old technology now, the Focus’s double-wishbone suspension rode the rougher loose-surface sections with ease, and the feeling of jumping over the huge kerbs through the final chicane is almost indescribable.

The conditions were cold and a little damp, but all day it was very much dry tyres only, the soft Cooper crossply rubber generating so much heat that they work well into damp and bordering on wet track conditions.

For years I’ve watched Supercars do practice starts on their way to the grid, the anti-lag system-assisted engines popping and banging in the process of the handbrake being released and all four tyres spinning up. Now it was my turn, on my way to the grid for Q1.

The pre-launch went OK, so there was no need to change the launch settings for the proper start. With a thumbs-up from the start marshal, I dipped the clutch, pulled the sequential lever towards me to select first, turned on the ALS, held the launch button on the steering wheel and pulled the handbrake, before finding the biting point on the clutch and holding the throttle flat to the floor.

Primed for my first-ever Supercar start, I committed a sin that I chastise other drivers for regularly. As the ‘ready to race’ light went out on the start gantry, before the green lights had come on, I reacted – let go of the handbrake and clutch, and jumped the start.

Two joker laps was the penalty, but fortunately the race was stopped for an incident, and I got to do it again, with only one joker this time. I was seventh fastest, and very pleased, despite managing to pull the top of the gear lever off. Fast work by Bardy and his team got the car turned around just in time for Q2, which was to be another learning experience.

As I launched away from the grid alongside team-mate O’Donovan, six-time champion Julian Godfrey made an inexplicably good start from the back row, had contact with O’Donovan in a challenge for the lead at Turn 1 and both cars spun. I had nowhere to go, careered into the side of a wayward Godfrey and spun hard into the wall.

Hal Ridge in action

Photo by: Tom Banks

I’d dipped the clutch, eventually found reverse and got going again, but in my haste forgot to switch the ALS back on, so the throttle was far less responsive than before, and I had difficulty getting the car turned in, without being able to use the responsiveness of the engine to help in rotating the rear. Still, I managed eighth fastest due to the rate of attrition.

I briefly led my Q3 race at the start but was passed by Steve Hill and held on to finish second in a clean run. I’d said pre-event that making the final would be like winning the championship for me, so having amazingly qualified sixth overall and on the front-row for the semis, I got excited and bought four brand-new tyres. That made a huge difference to how sharp the car felt.

Racing a rallycross Supercar had been a teenager’s dream, and the whole experience – the sounds, smells and pure driving pleasure, and competing against some amazing drivers – was a sensory overload

Having had Bardy spotting for me for much of the day, and doing a brilliant job, for the semi-finals I had David Mansfield on the radio, renowned for formerly being Andreas Bakkerud and Ken Block’s spotter and strategist in World RX.

Starting on the left-hand side of the grid, taking the first-corner joker on lap one was the obvious choice, and when Hill took his joker on lap two we’d done enough to cover him off, Mansfield encouraging me on the radio, calling the gaps to the car behind and making a big difference to the overall performance.

But then, we had an oil surge issue, which put the Focus briefly into limp mode at the North Bend hairpin for an increasing amount of time on every lap. I defended hard but on one tour Hill got up the inside of me down Hairy Hill.

On the outside, I braked first and, as Hill ran deep into one of the fastest corners in rallycross and I turned inside his Mitsubishi, I passed him back going into the chicane. Watching the video back, I still don’t believe it’s me pulling that move. Holding on to the finish, ultimately that pass earned me fourth – and a place in the final.

Final grid start

Photo by: Nations BRX

The last race of the weekend, held in fading December light, couldn’t really have gone better. Feeling increasingly at one with the car, I pushed hard, benefited from a few issues for others and set my personal best laps of the weekend (just 0.5s shy of O’Donovan’s best lap in the team’s other car). It was enough to finish fifth, just ahead of Godfrey and third of the British Championship registered drivers. Returning to parc ferme, I was greeted by friends in the paddock celebrating on my account.

I can’t deny that climbing out of the car was pretty emotional. Racing a rallycross Supercar had been a teenager’s dream, and the whole experience – the sounds, smells and pure driving pleasure, and competing against some amazing drivers – was a sensory overload. To have made that debut with legendary rallycross preparation outfit Tony Bardy Motorsport and to be far from finishing last exceeded all my expectations.

The truncated nature of the schedule made for hard work for the team, so huge thanks to Tony, Sam, Stuart, Paul, Peter and Dave for keeping the car going to such a high level, despite small niggles throughout the day, and of course to team owner O’Donovan for putting the deal on the table for me to do the event in the first place.

Drivers who have achieved amazing success at the highest level in motorsport have described racing a rallycross Supercar as hugely addictive. Now I’ve had a taste of that drug, I totally understand what they mean.

Hal Ridge in action leading Steve Hill in the semi-final

Photo by: Tom Banks