August 6, 2024
Junior Carbon Positive Motorsport Ambassador Zak Furber had an eventful day at the Heroes Stages rally at Weeton last weekend.
Photo with thanks to Carl Griffies
Taking part in just his third ever rally, Zak Furber and co-driver Cat Lund made it as far as SS4 before sliding off into a tree while offline on some gravel, due to moving out of the way for a crew who were on their second lap.
The pair tried to get going immediately, only to discover that the impact had broken the nearside front hub. The car was recovered to the nearby trailer park, where straight away the service crews from the other Junior teams came to help.
Zak said, "Unfortunately a slide on some gravel put us into a tree taking a wheel off. We’ve broken the hub, bent the bottom arm, steering rack and anti-roll bar and broken the driveshaft! Thanks to a lot of help from everyone involved with the Juniors, we are trying to get everything back together."
Zak's dad, Kevin Furber, was able to fix the car with a lot of help from the other crews, and was profuse with thanks for the other Junior teams who donated parts and helped him with the repairs.
"I'm really touched that everyone's rallied round after Zak's accident. I have to say a massive thank you to Matt from MSL, Henri Cynwyl and Dan Taylor for supplying the parts, and Charlie Mathewson's father Paul. A really big thank you, to you and all the countless others who helped."
Zak and Cat took a stage maximum for SS4 and had to miss SS5, giving them a 30-minute penalty and dropping them from 7th to last place, but were able to rejoin the rally from SS6 onwards for some valuable seat time.
Zak said, "Everyone helped out to get us back going again and after missing one stage we rejoined and had an amazing day."
Cat added, "It's always unfortunate to have an accident, but it's part of rallying and Zak learned a lot today, including not to give up when things go badly. Learning that kind of resilience is an invaluable life lesson."
Zak was rallying as part of the F1000 Rally Club Junior rally championship, which organises rallying for 14-17 year-olds. Championship organiser, Tony Bilham, said, " It's just how the championship is. It's all about let's muck in, let's get them back out there if we can, and that's always been the ethos of the championship."
The next Junior rally championship round will take place at Harlech, Wales on 13th October.
For more information visit www.formula1000.co.uk
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