Paul Beaton was taught by his father at the age of 14 the skills of how to read a map. Paul took these skills to start competing on Highland Car Club Navigational Road Rallies. Now, he has used these basic skills to clinch the MSA BTRDA Rally Championship, sitting beside driver, Euan Thorburn in a Ford Focus World Rally Car. And this was all done on the last round of the series that went to a tiebreaker.
“After winning the title on Saturday, whilst at the prize-giving for the Cambrian Rally, I was thinking of my dad showing me over how a rally works all these years ago and now here I was clinching one of the Home Counties titles. It is a long way from navigating the lanes around the back of Inverness,” says Paul.
Thorburn, from the Borders town of Jedburgh and Paul have lead every rally they have contested this year. Only mechanical issues have stopped more victories coming, however the haul of silverware includes six outright victories from 15 events. Contesting both the Scottish Championship and the English/Welsh BTRDA Championship has made it a busy year for the duo and their ex-Carlos Sainz Ford Focus.
“Since February there has been at least two rallies every month. It has been relentless in the travelling to and from events but it has also meant that we have always been ‘match-fit’ and right on the pace. It is only now that both series are over that we can reflect on what we have achieved.”
“Winning the BTRDA last weekend, makes up for the disappointment of a fortnight ago where we lost out on the Scottish Rally Championship on the last few corners of the last stage with a puncture. This meant that David Bogie took the event win and the Championship once again. That was a hard one to take.”
From starting out navigating with David Munro on the Road Rallies whilst still at school Paul has worked his way up the rallying ranks to be one of the countries top co-drivers. It hasn’t all been rallying though, there was a break for a while when Inverness Caledonian Thistle took his attention when playing for the second team. But persistent badgering from Foyer’s Ian Munro got him out on the forest stages for the Peugeot 205 Ecosse Challenge.
“On that first event back out we thought that we had won, until the times came in for this car running at the back of the field who had beaten us all. That was the first time that the name Euan Thorburn came to my attention.”
It wasn’t until 2010 that the pair became a team when they contested the international series, the British Rally Championship. This was great experience for them to learn their trade at the top UK level and to start to make their own pace-notes (the descriptions of the road ahead) that are vital to ensure the utmost top speed throughout each Special Stage.
“My role on the special stages is to describe the road ahead to Euan so that he knows what is coming up but to also know what gear and speed he should be tackling each corner or crest in. Such is the speed and the information that I need to get out that I am reading three or four corners ahead of where we actually are. Where my seat is in the car, it is so low, to keep the centre of gravity down, that I can’t see out of the window, so not only am I reading well in advance, I am having to navigate as to where we actually are by the feeling of the corners going through the seat. Literally co-driving by the seat of my pants.”
Out of the stages and Paul takes on an ‘office manager’ role. It is his job to get Euan to where he has to be on time, to ensure that the team of mechanics are where they are supposed to be to meet the car and with the correct amount of fuel and tyres ready for them. All of these schedules have to be prepared in advance of all the rallies and it takes a lot of time to work out all the logistics that are required.
Now heading into their fifth year as a team, the crew have developed a great understanding of what is required to be on the ultimate pace. Paul recalls lying fourth overall on the RACMSA Rally of Scotland in 2010, starting the Loch Ard stage that was being broadcast live around the world on Eurosport and their car had a in-car camera and both had microphones.
“You don’t think about the fact that you are live on TV when you are tackling a stage and you especially don’t think about it when you leave the road and roll just a couple of miles in from the start. It was around 11 o’clock on a Sunday morning and my language was a bit colourful for that time of day when the car eventually stopped in the ditch. People still give me a hard time about that.”
“But it is that level of event, taking on the best of Europe where we want to be in 2014. It will take a lot of budget but with the speed, consistency and the wins we have had this year there is no reason why we can’t take Scottish rallying further into Europe than just England and Wales that we visited and conquered this year.”
International rallying, worldwide live television and all started from navigational rallies as a fourteen year-old. Now Euan and Paul will take on their biggest challenge over the weekend of 15th-17th November when the take part in Wales Rally GB National event as the top seed.
