I am familiar with the area though and it is great having the family and all my mates behind me. The support I get probably drives me on more than the actual local knowledge. But if you said local knowledge I would probably know the stages round here [in Wales] and things like the Pirelli more than I would know the Manx.
Crash.net:
Thus far this year things have gone very well for you in the BRC, do you think you can challenge Guy Wilks and your brother, Mark for the title?
DH:
Yeah - 100 per cent, I am feeling quite comfortable. We got the car late. The car is a new car and it is quite common knowledge that the engine is not quite as good as they had hoped it would be. But we have made some progress in all areas of the car and we have a special new damper for the Isle of Man with some very high tech things on it. We really hope now going to the Isle of Man that we can narrow the gap. But we are also conscious that you have got to be getting the points to win the championship. I know last year Guy won five rallies and didn't finish the others [and took the title]. But I don't think this year anyone will go away and win five events. It will be a slightly different ball game this year to what it was last.
Crash.net:
Have you got any tactics or strategies in mind for the Rally Isle of Man - and the three events after it?
DH:
The main plan for the Isle of Man is to try and get on the podium again like we did on the previous two rallies. Stuart will be a big threat there. Morrow will be a threat as always. Then you have got Mark and Guy too and so there is no foregone conclusion. But if we can be up on the podium and keep improving the car between the rallies, then by the time the Trackrod comes and certainly by the time of the Rally GB - especially as the first day of the Rally GB is a scoring round and on all my local stages, 20 miles or so from my house - I am hoping we will be in a strong position and that we can put some pressure on them.
Crash.net:
The Subaru Impreza N14 is still very new, how are you getting on with it?
DH:
I really like the chassis. The car is handling well. There is a few little things on the rear end that need some attention but we are hoping what we have done between the rallies will make that problem a bit better. The car is very, very good. The transmission and everything is good. It is just the engine that lacks a little bit of response. But we have got some thoughts and we are hoping we might have made some progress. We have lightened the car a little bit more again too. All-in-all the car is great. The package is great. But as always when something is new things don't always go 100 per cent smoothly. However Prodrive have been a great help and obviously our own team now know the cars much better than when we first got them. Things are looking better. I am enjoying driving the car.
Crash.net:
You seem to have had more luck with it in the BRC than a number of drivers' have had in the PWRC?
DH:
I think it is the nature of the events. The BRC rallies are very high speed and the more high speed you have the more air flow you have coming through the car and that keeps the cooling down. That has been one of the issues the other drivers have been having. Also our rallies tend to be a lot smoother than some of the PWRC rallies. But there is also more to it than that. I think the control tyre they have to use on the WRC rallies is very, very hard. That is causing a lot of suspension failures and not just on the new Subaru, but on the existing Group N cars as well. There are a lot of things that are different. But I am fairly pleased with the way our guys back at base have been running the car and working through things and finding things out. I think our cars are probably as good as any other Subaru's out there.
Crash.net:
The big challenge this year is you are not only driving, but you are running your own team too. How has that been?
DH:
I must admit at the start of the year it was very, very tough getting everything together and getting everything in place. But now we are up and running we have a great bunch of guys on the team. Everyone is working very hard and they know where they need to work. It is actually running quite smoothly. I am really enjoying it. We want to try and expand now and we are looking to maybe trying to run some more programmes next year for other people. We had a lot of enquiries at the start of the year. But I didn't feel we were ready to take on too many customers. I wanted to go out and see what we could do. I wanted us to learn the ropes and then try and get some good customers on board for next year.
