Yates — Double trouble at Oulton Park
Rhys Yates and younger brother James Yates (JJ) take to the Neil Howard Stages in a pair of M-Sport Ford Fiesta Rally2 cars for the opening round of the 2021 British Rally Championship (BRC).
Rhys has his sights set on one goal for the BRC this year: winning the championship. The Neil Howard stages present Rhys with his first opportunity to start making progress towards that goal although the rally won’t be without its challenges.
The rally takes place over 50.24 competitive stage miles spread across eight special stages with the longest (SS1 and SS2) stage coming right at the start of the rally. The rally takes place across the iconic Oulton Park racing circuit which has previously featured as a Super Special Stage in the World Rally Championship, an arena Rhys is already familiar with. The stages are comprised of parts of the actual circuit with a unique and testing combination of access roads and a gravel road that is usually reserved for rally experiences. A particular challenge on this event for Rhys will be the use of maps for the stages as opposed to pace notes which adds an element of risk with maps offering vague corner descriptions compared to pace notes.
The competition for this year’s coveted BRC title is the toughest in recent history with skilled veterans and competitive rookies coming from all corners of the UK to state their claim for top honours. Whoever wins the championship this year, really will be the best of British.
On the subject of young and competitive rookies is JJ, Rhys’ younger brother, although Rhys admits he doesn’t believe that he will be playing second fiddle to young JJ on the BRC curtain-raiser. That doesn’t mean young JJ should be discounted, Rhys does think he might surprise a few people despite the handful of miles JJ has behind the wheel of a rally car.
The pair have competed together before as driver and co-driver, but Monday will be the first time they are competing separately as drivers against each other. The last time JJ sat with Rhys was on the seven-stage Goodwood Speedweek Super Special — an event they won every stage of. The event was similar in fashion to the Neil Howard Stages, being a circuit-based single venue rally, which should prove a handy experience for both drivers. Rhys recently had success on the Snetterton Stages too, a rally which he used as a preparation event for the start of his 2021 BRC campaign.
Rhys Yates said: “I’m looking forward to the rally, obviously, it’s the first round of the BRC so that should be fun as there’s always a lot of excitement behind that and I think this event is just good fun. The stage format, with infield and circuit, should be a good blast around. The main goal is to have some fun and hopefully get a good result. It’s good to have my brother competing, we’ve never gone against each other on a rally before so to be in the same car on the same road on the same event, it will be fun. I think he will do well; he’s got more experience than me on that rally. Everybody’s giving me stick that my brother might beat me, but he might do, he’s decent and I think he will surprise a few people. Obviously, we want to have a good result and make a good start to the championship so we will be taking it seriously on the day, there’s no doubt about that. In the end I’m just happy that the championship is finally kicking off!”
James Yates said: “My expectations are to have fun with Woody (Tom Woodburn), he’s a good laugh, and have a good laugh and enjoy razzing around in a fast car. I’m not just there to make numbers up either, I am a competitive person. I’d like to try and repeat a podium in the Motorsport News Circuit Championship as I did a couple of years ago, I don’t know how realistic that is to be honest. The other aim is to just get faster throughout the day. It’s the first bit of rallying that anybody’s been able to do for ages and away from rallying we’ve been grafting for the past four months, so this is a chance to have some fun. If I was to do any event this year the Neil Howards Stages make the most sense, I’ve done it twice before, with Woody in 2017 and Rhys in 2018 and I got second on both appearances. We’re using an M-Sport Fiesta Rally2 with a simple livery and some RYR stickers, Rhys has been helping me out with some tips and things to think about. He’s a good coach to be fair. It will be a fun day, good crack and be nice to support Rhys if I need to, he’s the priority, I’m just there to fly the RYR flag, enjoy it and I obviously feel very fortunate to be competing in such a quick car.”
