Fisher heads to Portugal for WRC Academy debut

Alastair Fisher will join 19 other young rising rally stars when he contests the opening event of the inaugural FIA WRC Academy on Rally of Portugal next week.

Fisher, who has achieved considerable success in Britain and Ireland since taking up rallying, is embarking on his first World Rally Championship campaign this season as he looks to build the skills needed for a long-term career in the sport’s highest echelon.

At 22, Fisher is regarded as one of Britain’s brightest rallying prospects. However, he has only tackled one WRC rally to date so plans to spend 2011 gathering knowledge of the events and adapting to the rigours of a longer competition format.

Speaking from his home in Trillick, County Tyrone, prior to making the trip to Portugal on Monday, Fisher said: “My target is certainly to finish the rally and learn as much as I can in the process. Obviously with it being the first round it is hard topredict a result, but gauging my pace against the other drivers will be important. I am really looking forward to the challenge of competing on a rally like Portugal where everything will be new.”

Fisher is studying an Honours Degree in Construction, Engineering and Management at the University of Ulster in Jordanstown, Belfast, and has been combining his education with preparing for his WRC Academy debut.

“It’s been a busy few months,” said Fisher. “My rallying and my education are equally important and it’s made fitting in testing and practice events quite difficult. But I’m feeling ready and prepared and can’t wait to get started.”

Rally of Portugal gets underway with a stage through the streets of the capital Lisbon on the afternoon of Thursday March 24. Competitors then head back to the rally’s base in Faro in the country’s picturesque Algarve region for two days of competition on the undulating, medium-speed gravel stages that are characterised by their abrasive surface.

While the bulk of the rally entrants will tackle the final day of the event on Sunday (March 27), Fisher and his Academy rivals will take part in a debrief and training day overseen by former world championship-winning co-driver, Robert Reid. During the session, they will get the opportunity to analyse their performances using data and video footage gathered from the previous two days with the intention of implementing any lessons learned on the next round of the series.

Although Fisher won’t get to sample the Portuguese stages until the reconnaissance gets underway this coming Tuesday, his Burnley-based co-driver Daniel Barritt has taken part on the event in the past. “Daniel’s knowledge is going to be very important and I’ll be looking to take advantage of that,” said Fisher.

Q&A: Alastair Fisher

How have you prepared for your WRC Academy debut?

“Last week we had a three-day induction course at M-Sport in Cumbria, where all the Ford Fiesta R2s we will use this season are built. It was really useful because we got a really good idea of what was in store; got some good advice and we also got to drive the car.”

What was it like getting behind the wheel?

“We got around 20 minutes each at an airfield; Niall McShea [the former Production Car world rally champion] sat in with us to give us some tutoring and to assess how we were driving and using the car to its potential.”

But it wasn’t the first time you had driven the Fiesta R2 was it?

“We can only use our WRC Academy Fiestas on the six events we do so we’ve invested in a spare Fiesta to do testing and some rallies back home. We’ve competed in three rallies since the start of the year and won our class twice with a mechanical failure on the third rally. We also plan to do a short test this weekend.”

Do the Academy cars differ from the standard Fiesta R2s?

“The Academy cars have an upgraded sump guard and rear beam but are otherwise the same as the standard Fiesta R2.”