I drove the Xsara for the first time today in the shakedown. The best time I managed was a 2:55.15. The car took a lot of setting up and felt quite nervous on the tarmac. I just hope that the car is more comfortable on gravel or mud stages. Still, after the shakedown, I felt I had a fairly good setup with which to attack the stages. Though I always wanted to remain somewhat conservative and avoid losing any chance of a good finish due to silly mistakes.

Day 1

The first loop was fine, conservative as I had planned. A lapse in concentration on stage 3, however, meant I ran wide around the outside of a barrier near the beginning of the stage. I had to reverse back out onto the road and lost at least 10 seconds. A minor off on the next stage didn't help either, though I still set a faster time on it than I did in shakedown, resulting in a PB. Another PB on SS5 boosted my confidence and SS6 was average. I almost got stuck behind another barrier on SS7 but 'avoiding action' minimalised the time lost. The rest of the stages were all personal best times. I finished the day quite satisfied and just have to hope that the 10 seconds or so lost on SS3 didn't affect my position too much.

Day 2

It didn't start off too well. I was a second off the pace of my day 1 time on SS1, which isn't much to complain about. But a roll on SS2 cost me at least 5 seconds and set of a messy rhythm for the next loop of stages. SS3 went well though I took a fair amount of risks and, despite spending an instance sliding across a ditch, SS4 was a new PB. As was SS5, by a good margin! The final 3 tests were good too, amongst them another best time on SS7.

So, in conclusion, I must take this first round of the season as a learning experience in the wild Xsara. I feel I now have a good tarmac setup for the next tarmac round, albeit a long time away. The confidence is quickly coming through. As for results, my shakedown times don't fair too well against those posted. Admittadly, my speed is not going to be enough to score points. My consistency, may just though. We shall see. If I'm somewhat on the pace of the midfield pack, I'll be happy. I've been too long a member of the backmarkers! :