Exclusive Interview with
Top British Co-driver Andy Morgan

Before	After (new slimline Chunky)
Andy co-drives for 'Mad' Mick Jones in the BTRDA Gold Star Championship 2004	New slimline version now available for co-driving duties in 2006

Personal
Name:	Andy Morgan
Age:	47
Marital status:	Divorced – twice. Didn’t learn the first time that marriage and rallying don’t always mix!
Children:	3 girls, Debbie (23), Katie (21) & Ceri (14)
Occupation:	Computer technician and web designer
Place of birth:	Changi, Singapore
Country or county where you live:	Pembrokeshire, West Wales
Does your spouse / partner like rallying?	See marital status above!
Any other hobbies?	Computers and looking after the Team Chaos website
Your opinions
Favourite food:	Hmmm… Mad Mick reckons it’s anything that puts weight on! But I would say Roast Lamb and Mint Sauce (well I am Welsh!)
Favourite drink:	A nice cup of builders tea!
Favourite motorsport paper / magazine:	Motorsport News though I find the clubmans' coverage rather lacking these days.
Favourite sports person (other than rallying):	Hard to say… for me there is only one sport. Rallying
Favourite film star:	Al Pacino
Favourite holiday destination:	Florida
Which TV sports programmes do you watch?	Any motorsport coverage, though I do particularly like the Eurosporrt and S4C coverage of the WRC.
Starting out
How did you start out?	First interest was from back in the seventies watching the Red Dragon Rally when it was a Motoring News Road Rally which started from my home village of Saundersfoot
First driver you sat with:	Robert Kemble in an RS2000
First event:	First rally was the 1984 Sarn Helen Rally – a Motoring News Road Rally. Not the best of starts to a career.  Got lost due to nerves on the run out to the first selective start but settled down and was doing nicely until we snapped a driveshaft and spent most of the night shivering on a mountain top until some friends came looking for us! Driver was impressed enough with my map reading to ask me back… never looked back after that.
Rallying background
Type of licence held:	International
Which motor club do you belong to?	Dinefwr District Car Club & BTRDA
Do you contribute towards your rallying?	Not financially
Have you ever driven on a rally?	Did once do a twelve car in a Mk.1 Escort Sport 1300. Punctured a tyre on the second bend and jack broke so had to wait for the start marshals to come and lift the car so we could change the wheel. Lost fifteen minutes changing wheel but fought back to finish 6th overall, nine minutes behind the winners.
Did you ever marshal on events? When and where?	Yes, on Welsh road rallies in the eighties and on the RAC did media information crew at the end of the Resolven stage a few years back.
How many events do you get to watch? (e.g. per year)	2 or 3
How many rallies do you take part in? (e.g. per year)	This year around 25
Have you competed abroad? Where and when?	Yugoslavia and Belgium from 1997 onwards.
Your opinions (rallying)
Favourite rally car:	Mitsubishi Lancer, though I don’t like the look of the Evo 7, much prefer the Evo 5 (and I’m not just saying that because Mad Mick has one!!)
Favourite rally driver:	Henri Toivonen from days gone by, but now it has to be Petter Solberg.
Favourite rally co-driver:	Luis Moya. Anyone who can talk that fast and not get tongue-tied gets my vote!
Favourite bit of road or forest:	Brechfa forest in Carmarthenshire
Do you prefer pace notes or map reading events?	Enjoy both, but maps are my favourite. It takes a lot of skill and practice to get the most out of maps and there are fewer and fewer co-drivers who can do it really well these days.
Things you dislike about rallying?	Technology spoiling the sport by making it far too expensive for 99% of drivers to get a really competitive car. WRC cars should be banned from any events other than WRC events or at least active transmissions should. Bring the sport back towards the clubman not make it just a millionaire's sport.
Who do you think will win the World Rally Championship in 2002?	Marcus Gronholm, but would like to see Colin or Richard win it
Rallying history
Drivers you have sat with:	At the last count it was 41 including ‘Mad’ Mick Jones, Trevor Cathers, Julian Reynolds, Jon Joaniddies, John Roberts, Iwan Roberts to name but a few. A full list is on the Team Chaos website.
Best driver you have ever sat with?	It has to be ‘Mad’ Mick on gravel and Trevor Cathers on tarmac
Best result:	Winning the ’98 Galax Rally in Yugoslavia with Trevor Cathers. We set fastest time and beat the stage record on every stage to win by six and a half minutes. We were supposed to do the whole of the Yugoslavian National Championship that year, but the Kosovo Crisis put an end to it and we had to withdraw.
Worst result:	Finishing last with a local driver (Ivor the Driver) doing his first ever rally in a 1300 Escort. He is a postman and drove about the same speed he drives the post van delivering letters. Spent the whole event as a mobile chicane for everyone else! We not only won the class as we were the only finisher, but also won the Pembrokeshire Motor Club Championship as we were the only crew to finish in the 1300cc class all year! I was too embarrassed to go to the dinner and pick up my award!
Championships contested:	ANWCC AWMMC Welsh Clubmans Welsh National BTRDA Gold Star
Best Championship result:	Winning the first Welsh National title in 1990 by beating Phil Mills
Best rally memory:	Starting my first ever RAC Rally with Mad Mick in the GpN Mitsubishi Starion. The chase car loaded with around a ton of equipment was faster than the Starion and we remember a Skoda passing us on a road section and pulling away from us up a hill. We were gutted, but went on to finish 38th o/a.
Strangest incident on a rally:	Starting a Welsh Championship event with Mick, sliding off on the first stage and retiring, then doing the final stage in the sister car in the same colour scheme as ours with Geoff Jones, who had borrowed it to run course car that day. It certainly confused the marshals at the end of the stage who couldn’t quite work out what was going on and who had changed places. Of course I played dumb and made out I had been there all day.
Biggest accident:	With Mick in 1989 on the Meirion Stages. Went end over end a few times and Team Chaos was born!  But worst accident was breaking an ankle in a Mk.1 Escort on the Ides Rally in 1986 when we went off and hit a rock bank at around 60mph.
Achievements gained from rallying:	2 divorces!
Your current performance
Your current driver(s) and events or Championships being contested in 2002	Concentrating on BTRDA Gold Star which Mick has a healthy lead in now. Not bad for someone who has been out of rallying for six years. Also registered for Welsh National.
How could you improve your ‘own’ current performance?	Lose more weight but, let's face it, I’m built for comfort not speed
How could you improve your current driver’s performance?	Buy Mick a World Rally Car
If you had £50,000 to spend on rallying, what would you do?	Invest it in Stuart Jones, Mick’s 17yr old son who is just starting rallying. He is going to be good - very, very good.
Your future in rallying
Where would you most like to compete (in the world):	Not bothered… just enjoy rallying wherever I am.
Which rally would you most like to compete in?	Rally of Finland. A real sphincter tester!
Which driver(s) would you most like to co-drive for?	Colin McRae, just to see if I could keep him on his wheels
Ambition in rallying for the future:	Just to keep on competing as long as I keep on enjoying it. If I stop enjoying it then I will stop. Have tried retiring from competition a few times but each time someone comes along and drags me back… usually Mad Mick.
What would you like to put back into rallying?	Anything, we try to put the humour back into the sport with the infamous Team Chaos News which is a tongue-in-cheek look at both ourselves and other unfortunate competitors. A lot of people take themselves far too seriously.  At the end of the day this is a sport and we are supposed to enjoy ourselves.
The future of rallying
Which up-and-coming rally driver can you recommend?	Stuart Jones. So much natural talent. Definitely one to watch for in the future.
Which up-and-coming rally co-driver can you recommend?	Craig ‘Ernie’ Parry. Has the will and determination to succeed plus he has one thing I don’t have - a 30" waistline
What would be the best tip you could give to other co-drivers?	Always stay in control. Make sure you have everything under control even when the driver thinks it’s him who’s running the show. Plenty of pre-event preparation and be organised both in and out of the car.
Any other comments	Wish the WRC teams would send talent scouts out to watch and observe events so they could spot the talented drivers and then bring them on with some support. With their clout behind them, they would have a better chance of getting a decent sponsorship package which could mean the difference between a talented driver making it or just ending up flat broke and back as a spectator. Check out www.teamchaos.co.uk
posted 27/8/02