After decades competing at the highest level of international rallying, former World Rally Championship co-driver Nicky Grist faced an unfamiliar challenge on Saturday: his first-ever hill climb.
The Welsh motorsport veteran, best known for his partnership with the late Colin McRae, swapped the navigator’s seat for the steering wheel at Rallye Prescott in Gloucestershire.
“Enjoy the day! Come back with a straight car, no damage and just progress and get quicker and quicker times,” Grist said ahead of the event.
Despite his extensive experience in motorsport, Grist admitted that mastering Prescott’s technical corners would require a different approach.
“It’s quite difficult to get the right lines on some of these corners. There’s a couple of really tricky ones that you have to stay out very wide and late to get the right apex,” he explained.
“I think that’s the key of success here as much as anything else. But we are still learning the road so hopefully by darkness we will be in a reasonable shape.”
Unlike traditional stage rallying, where competitors navigate longer routes with the assistance of a co-driver, hill climbing challenges drivers to complete a short course against the clock.
Preparation also differed from Grist’s usual rally commitments, with the Welshman balancing a busy schedule alongside getting his car ready.
“Things are a little different for me, I’ve got so many other things on the go, so we’ve been prepping the car over a period of time,” he said.
“Car preparation for something small like this is not going to be in depth as it would be for a bigger stage rallye because the whole running here today is probably no more than one stage of a normal rallye.”
While Grist has spent much of his career competing internationally, his appearance at Prescott offered an opportunity to experience a different form of motorsport closer to home.
Nicky Grist reflects on his passion for rallying and the opportunities to compete in historic rally cars.
Rallye Prescott brought together a variety of rally cars, offering spectators a different experience from traditional stage rallies.
For Grist, however, the emphasis was on learning the circuit, improving his times and completing the event without damaging his car.
With Prescott marking the end of his motorsport calendar, the Welshman was already looking towards another year of competition.
“This is the end of the year for me, clean it, park it up and then we’ll start again in the new year.”
But even after decades in the sport, Prescott presented something new for one of rallying’s most recognisable names: the opportunity to tackle an unfamiliar discipline from behind the wheel.
