Mitsubishi Evo Challenge star Phillip Morrow mastered treacherous conditions and the notorious fast forest stages of Wales Rally GB to reach the finishing ramp on his debut appearance on the event, and wrap up the PIAA Junior Award into the bargain.
The Lisburn ace, together with his co-driver Daniel Barritt, showed few nerves on his maiden World Rally Championship outing and began on a high note when he and his team were presented with the Walon trophy, for the best-prepared car in the Mitsubishi series.
Although the pair vowed to make a cautious start, their Lancer E9 was nevertheless pointing second in both the British Rally Championship and Evo Challenge standings after the opening stage, and even more impressively still inside the top 20 outright. That trend continued until stage four, when the rough road surface through Port Talbot Forest punctured a front tyre and subsequently led to a broken shaft in the transmission.
Although managing to get through the stage, closer inspection confirmed that the car wasn't going any further and therefore Morrow elected to just get back to the Swansea service area to enable his team to carry out repairs. With the event running to international rally regulations, retired crews may still feature in the results provided they take their car to the finish of each leg. A penalty of five minutes, plus the time of the fastest car in the class, is applied for each non-completed stage – a scenario which meant that Phillip and Daniel were able to continue on Saturday, albeit a lot further back down the order.
Day two saw a trip across the Brecon Beacons as well as a spectacular indoor stage at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium, but Morrow and Barritt's new position towards the bottom of the field meant that aside from having to contend with a very cut-up road surface, they were also catching slower cars ahead of them.
Adjusting their driving accordingly, the only problem on Saturday was another puncture and the duo ended the day having climbed back up to 37th overall, seventh in the BRC and, most importantly of all, second in the Evo Challenge in which they were still amazingly in with a chance of lifting the title.
Unfortunately, a sharp rock at the side of the road on the first stage of the final day had other ideas, ripping a tyre off the rim. With the steering bent, this left them no choice but to stop and just get the car to the finish in 51st place overall, ninth in the BRC and third in the Evo Challenge, missing out on the crown by a mere nine points after six hard-fought rounds.
“It wasn't our best event, but I'm pleased we were able to feature in the results,” Morrow remarked afterwards. “As this was our first WRC event it was a great experience and I was pleased with my stage times against the more established drivers who regularly compete at International level.”
Indeed, the 23-year-old's performance on the longest and most challenging rally of his career was enough to earn him the PIAA Junior Award for under-25 Mitsubishi drivers, with the prize being a day at John Haugland's snow and ice driving school in Norway as he sets his sights on 2007 and putting all the knowledge he has gained this year towards a concerted championship challenge.
