But driver Craig Robert – who rejoins navigator Chris Guille – is not getting ahead of himself when it comes to next week’s rally, being wary not only of unbeaten champion Ross Le Noa but the full breadth of talent competing.
Jersey and UK drivers make up six of the top 10 seeded pairings, with Paul Trebert (seventh), Nick Duquemin (eighth) and Chris Torode (10th) also among the leading home prospects. Guernsey’s Will Rutherford and Ian Allsop are navigating for top crews.
Top 10 seedings
1 - Ross Le Noa/Derek Le Bailly (Jersey)
2 - Craig Robert/Chris Guille (Guernsey)
3 - Ed Fossey/Will Rutherford (Jersey)
4 - Darryl Morris (Jersey)
5 - Damian Cole/Ian Allsop (UK)
6 - Dave Oliveira/Victor Nobrega (Jersey)
7 - Paul Trebert/Jamie Trebert (Guernsey)
8 - Nick Duquemin/Phil Ferbrache (Guernsey)
9 - Mark Syvret/Chris Fox (Jersey)
10 - Chris Torode/Nick Saunders (Guernsey)
‘The top 10 is full of people that all will have potential of really getting up there,’ Robert said after last year’s breakthrough runner-up placing.
‘It depends how the event goes. There’s so many things that can happen – the cars have got to make it through without any mechanical issues, and there’s so many tight and technical bits that it can take one little slip-up, even just a puncture, and a rock could cause you to drop down.
‘Until you get in among it, you don’t know.’
Robert owed much of last year’s excellence – finishing within 20sec. of Le Noa – to over-performing on the rain-soaked Saturday morning stages.
Otherwise, he says, they would have ‘probably still been where we were Friday night’ – about fourth.
But he is still looking forward to racing against the likes of Jersey’s Le Noa, who has a new co-driver in Derek Le Bailly, and even six-time UK asphalt champion Damian Cole on his Guernsey debut.
‘Damian Cole is coming over from the UK, which is quite exciting, and he seems to have done quite a lot in the UK,’ Robert added.
‘I’ll be intrigued to see how well he gets on, and the cars they’ve got are quite incredible, so me hurtling around in a 50-year-old car is not quite the same as they’ve got.
‘That’s the sort of thing that I’ve always wanted, so I’m happy just being there in among them and if we can use our local knowledge and put a little bit of pressure on them, that would be nice.’
The seven-stage rally begins on the afternoon of Friday 20 February and finishes the following evening.
Look out for a full interview with Craig Robert in the Guernsey Press as part of our special rally preview series, featuring an interview every day next week.
