Jones working his way back from opening day mistake
It was arguably the moment of the year but talented youngster Bryn Jones is using his mishap at Otago Rally to help him in his quest to become NZRC 2WD champion.
Jones suffered a potentially championship-ruining incident at the opening day of the season when he spun his Ford Fiesta Rally 4 and damaged the radiator, taking him out of the rally.
The in-car told the full story – Murphy’s Law taking a cruel swing at him while he was riding high.
Jones was heard saying how stable the car felt to co-driver Sean Lockyear just as the car stepped sideways on him and he hit a bank.
It took him out of the rally battle much to his frustration.
“I’m a passionate guy, and I’m probably at times a little bit over passionate,” Jones admits. “When we’re on a high, I’m definitely living in the high and when we have a low, I’m probably beating myself up about it.
“I sort of thought that it was a silly mistake to make, and I was a bit frustrated with myself just because at the start of the season, we sort of thought that we’re gonna give this year a good crack. I want to win this. I want to win this championship and give it the absolute best I can. And unfortunately, it was just this one simple mistake, that proved costly.
“Unfortunately, it just made our championship a little bit harder.”
While he was despondent at the time, Jones has had some time to come to terms with the incident. His involvement in the Winmax Junior Driver Scholarship has helped the mental aspects of the sport as well as some key set-up things he’s been able to rectify.
“I sort of needed a little bit of time to review the accident and in order to figure out what had happened,” Jones said. “Working with Hayden Paddon in the Winmax Junior Driver scholarship, we’ve managed to find out a few of the issues with it in regard to the car set up.
“It’s definitely hard after you’ve had an accident in order to get back into it. But if you really just try just putting your head down and just getting on with the job it does come back naturally. Sometimes you just need a little bit of a quick mental reset just to get yourself back on track.”
Some mechanical issues haunted him at South Canterbury but he was finally able to secure a podium finish last month at the Southern Lights Rally.
“It was nice. To be able to get back on the podium where, we know we belong. It’s been a little while since we’ve been able to do that so hopefully we can rack up a few more podiums come the end of the year and hopefully we’ll be able to put ourselves back in that championship battle.”
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