RallySport Magazine March 2017

INTERVIEW: ELFYN EVANS
As the World Rally
Championship
heads to Mexico
for its first round outside
Europe, who better to
ask than a globe-trotting
rally driver for tips on
how to travel smart.
Elfyn Evans would
probably like to spend
less of his life in airport lounges. But
as an international rally driver and
Red Bull athlete competing in the
FIA World Rally Championship, he’s
sort of condemned himself to a life
of departure gates, newsagents and
baggage reclaims.
So if travel is a necessary evil, what
are Elfyn’s tips for making it as easy as
possible?
We sat down with the DMACK World
Rally Team driver to talk suitcase
essentials, his souvenir purchasing
policy and, er, crocodile handling.
So Elfyn, what are the things you always
take with you on a flight?
“I always have a ton of electronics in
my hand luggage, because we take all
the video footage from previous years’
rallies with us to every event. So my
hand luggage is always a mess, because
the cables are always tangled up at
the bottom of my bag. I’ll usually have
about five hard drives, six GoPros and
all the rest of it.
“I always have a training kit, too. I
carry a TRX system around with me so
that I can do that anywhere, hang it on
a hotel door or whatever.
“It’s easy to go for a run, but if you
want to do anything else, if you’re away
on a long-haul for a week and a half,
you could end up doing no strength
training at all. So I always take that with
me.
“I’ll always have headphones, too,
because travelling is quite boring really.
I’m not really a book guy, so I usually
have some series on the go on the
laptop just to have something to watch.
“Before the rally starts, you often
start your day at seven in the morning,
come back off recce at four or five
o’clock, review video footage flat-out,
go for food, do some more video.
“It’s nice to have something different
to watch just before you go to bed. I
don’t have anything on the go at the
moment, but I’ve watched all of Sons
of Anarchy, which was quite good.
Breaking Bad was good too.”
Have you ever rocked business class?
“We’re lucky in that we get to fly
business class for all the long hauls,
and that makes a big, big difference
when you’re going to events. I’ve never
done first class though, just business.”
Elfyn’s travel tips
Do you try and see the sights in the places
you visit, or can you only do that via PR
events at the rallies?
“It depends where it is, really. The
problem is that the PR events are
always the night before a rally starts, so
you’re never really in the frame of mind
to really enjoy yourself.
“I think if it was on the Sunday or
Monday before the rally, it would
maybe be easier to enjoy it, but it’s
always a bit of a rush. You’re looking at
your watch thinking, ‘How much longer
do we have to stay?’ because you’ve got
loads of video left to check.
“We did one with crocodiles and
snakes though. I held the crocodile, but
I didn’t go anywhere near the snake!”
What about trying the local food?
“To be honest, we get pretty good
food in the hospitality area. I enjoy
Italian food a lot, so if I get that I’m
usually pretty happy.”
What’s your best purchase from a trip?
“I never buy anything when I’m away.
I’m not tight with money, but I’ve got
very little patience for shopping. I’m
very much a boys’ toys kind of guy, so if
I go and buy something, it’s more likely
to be a motocross bike or something
like that, rather than buying sh*t while
I’m away!
“Normally, I’ll only end up buying
something if I’ve forgotten something.”
What’s the favourite country that you’ve
visited?
“I like Mexico, just because it’s very
different. There’s something old school
about it, but in a good way, like people
travelling around in the back of pick-up
trucks. If you did that in the UK, you’d
be locked up!
“It’s just really laid back, very cool. A
bit dangerous, but I think that adds to
the atmosphere – although I don’t know
if I’d just go cruising through Mexico
City!
“We actually transferred through
Mexico City for the rally once. We went
to get a taxi at the airport desk and this
guy had no idea where the hotel was,
even though it was just around the
corner from the airport.
“We ended up going down these little
streets in Mexico City and it didn’t feel
particularly safe. There were people
standing in the middle of the road
looking at us and then getting out of
the way to let us past.”
What about languages – apart from English
and Welsh, of course, do you speak any
others?
“No I don’t. I was one of those typical
kids at school who thought, ‘What’s
the point of learning languages? I don’t
need to do this’.
“My Dad [former British Rally
Champion Gwyndaf Evans] would
tell me, ‘You should really be doing
languages’, and obviously he’d travelled,
been there, done that. But I was the
14-year-old lad who knew everything
and I’d decided that languages were
hard and I didn’t enjoy learning them.
“But definitely after travelling so
much over the last few years, I now
regret that I didn’t take the time to learn
another language.”
And finally, what’s your biggest travel tip?
“I have very little patience, to be
honest, so maybe I could give a tip to
the people that take half an hour at
security checks. Get everything you
need out of your bags before you get to
the desk!”
MARCH 2017 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 59