James Williams Lifts ‘Massive Weight Off Shoulders’ After Claiming First Rally Win

By Paul Evans

James Williams admitted he lifted “a ‘massive weight off my shoulders’ after scoring his first overall rally win.

The Newcastle Emlyn driver achieved what he’s been aiming to do for a while in style, by dominating last weekend’s Manx National Rally.

Co-driven by Ross Whittock, Williams led the three leg, two day, 15 stage, 127 stage mile event from start to finish in his Orange Amplifiers Hyundai i20 N Rally2 – and in winning the famous rally extends his lead at the top of the Protyre Motorsport UK Asphalt Rally Championship standings.

After setting the fastest time on all four of Leg 1’s stages, James went into the afternoon break leading by 48.4 seconds – and over the course of Friday evening’s stages he extended that advantage to 1min 17.9secs by the overnight halt.

It hadn’t been all plain sailing however, as he’d had to top up the brake fluid system with water and Lucozade after suffering brake problems on the day’s final two stages.

The dry and fast conditions continued on Saturday, where James extended his lead as the longest leg of the event progressed – eventually winning the event by an incredible 4mins 04.5secs.

He now has a perfect Protyre Asphalt score of 90 points after three rounds.

“It’s been a solid weekend to be fair and I’m over the moon with the feeling I’ve had in the car,” said Williams.

“I had the confidence to push on the stages which I hadn’t really had before but which has been coming all year.

“Everything worked well. Ross did an amazing job, the team has done a fantastic job, all my partners and family back home supporting us – it’s just a massive weight off my shoulders to get my first win.

“That was the biggest thing for me – I really needed to tick that box.

‘I said I wanted to make a mark on British rallying this year and this result shows that we’re going in the right direction.”

Steve Wood knows that if you keep out of trouble then a good result is likely to follow, and the 2022 Protyre Asphalt champion did just that with a textbook drive in his Sligo Pallets Citroën C3 Rally2.