ITV-F1 presenter Tony Jardine gave the new Ford Fiesta ST150 its first successful outing on snow and ice by finishing 32nd overall in one of rallying's great ice challenges, the Norwegian Mountain Rally.
105 competitors from seven countries gathered in Gol, two hundred kilometres North West of Oslo, to take up the Mountain Rally challenge. Just 55 cars finished in the exacting snow and ice of Norway's Mountainous rally tests.
Jardine was accompanied by
Motorsport News journalist Matt Burt competing in his first ever international event and his first ever snow rally. However, he nearly didn't compete at all after a huge pre-event accident in the
Sportinglife.com rally support vehicle, crashing after ice testing two days before the rally started.
"I had just successfully tested the Ford Fiesta ST150 at John Haugland's famous ice school near Geilo, when it was time to join the convoy back to base driving a team four-by-four support vehicle," explained Burt.
"Having survived two hours testing flat out over the ice, I slipped off the mountain track rolling the support vehicle into the trees four metres down, damaging the car beyond repair. Luckily nobody was in the vehicle with me as the roof was badly caved in on the passenger side. Apart from a few cuts on my hands which Tony insisted I immerse into the freezing snow - I was fine. I think the freezing snow was more painful than by bruises!"
Burt escaped injury to enjoy some spectacular jumps over the mountain crests which will be shown on
Sky Sports in February. He described the Fiesta's low flying antics as 'awesome' but they were only able to complete the event after the work of the deft service crew of Andy Rogers and Den Powers saved the day.
