Welsh rally driver Sara Williams makes her return to the Renault Clio R3T Trophy France Championship in 2018, after her successful foray into the French series last year, writes Roger Gale.
The first round of the Championship is the Rallye Le Touquet next week-end, with sixteen special stages scheduled in and around the upmarket seaside resort on the west coast of Northern France not far from Boulogne .
The series runs in partnership with the FFSA French Rally Championship title battle, with six rounds in total throughout France , and in legendary rally territory as the year progresses all over France from now until late November.
Sara has the experienced Patrick Walsh as co-driver for the first three rounds, with the remaining three events still in discussion.
The French opener for the Clio R3T series is not new to Sara, included in the 2017 championship, though this year is a mix of old and new special stages.
Those stages will be visited today and tomorrow, with a ‘shakedown’ stage on Thursday afternoon as a final test of the Renault prior to the rally start on Friday.
A total of some two hundred kilometres will be run at high speed, including some on Friday night, and two seafront ‘Le Touquet promenade’ stages will entertain both locals and visitors at the resort. The Welsh ace continues with support from Brecon Motors, Brecon Car Rentals, Renault Sport France, ASM Motorsport, FIA Women In Motorsport, Motordrive Seats, and Burnsides.
Sara is the rising star of British rallying, having taken the prestigious Goldstar Elite Award of the British Women Racing Drivers Club in 2017, and the Louise Aitken Walker Trophy of the BWRDC, her second win of the Goldstar honour after the first in 2015.