I could almost hear the sigh of relief from the others when the World Rally Championship in Wales was assigned to me.  The remote locations, the wind, the rain and the mud have given it a reputation as ”challenging”. Now after experiencing it for myself and standing in all the above for extended periods, I can confirm that this reputation is richly deserved.

On Day One I took a long walk to a spot recommended to me by one of the co-drivers where the cars hit a jump in top gear at over 100mph. Even through the viewfinder of a camera it was an incredible sight to behold see cars flying for 20 or 30 metres.  

 
Bizarrely, rally stewards who under normally circumstances love nothing more than ordering people about and getting in your way, appeared oblivious to the the cluster of photographers and TV crew just a few metres away from where the cars were landing.  

On Day Two I  chose a location which promised to give me clean action shots as drivers took a steeply sloping bend. Unfortunately for Norway’s Andreas Mikkelsen the bend was trickier than he thought. He hit a boulder which flipped the car over and sent it tumbling down the slope.

This time however I was shooting on a long lens at a very safe distance so even when the car was absolutely filling my frame my only thought was for the brand new camera I was using as a remote directly in line with where the car was heading. Photographers closer to the action had to make a split second decision to either keep on shooting or make a run for it, but the car rolled one last time onto its three remaining wheels and stopped. Happily the driver, co-driver, photographers and my remote camera all emerged unscathed.  

One man’s misfortune is another man’s luck, but as much as I’d like to take the credit for being in the right place at the right time, those drivers must each take a thousand corners every day and my being there was pure concidence.   

Here, on a straight stretch of road without bolders or spectators is a man who stayed dry and upright all the way through Wales,  World Rally Champion Sebastien Loeb of France.