Two of the most popular rally championships in the country joined together at this year’s North Wales Rally Services - Rally North Wales and produced two new names to be engraved onto the trophy of Saturday’s event.
Jason Pritchard, co-driven by Phil Clarke, took the honours of the National A event for the Mintex MSA British Historic Rally Championship crews in his Ford Escort MK2, with Luke Francis and John H. Roberts taking the National A event win and maximum points in the Pirelli MSA Welsh Rally Championship in his Mitsubishi E9.
With almost identical weather to the 2015 event, this year’s Dolgellau-based rally took place with torrential rain flooding the area during the day. The 120 competitors who started the Wolverhampton and South Staffordshire Car Club organised event would undoubtedly be faced with challenging conditions across the 45 competitive stage miles in the Gartheiniog and Dyfi forests - standing water being the main complaint of the day.
The National B event was set to contest five of the six stages planned and Rhuddlan's Luke Francis dominated throughout. As car one was retired from the event in memory of David Stokes, who recently passed away, number two seed Francis started perfectly with a fastest time on all three of the first leg stages.
Despite a lack of anti-lag on the Mitsubishi, Francis was never headed all day long and led from start to finish, returning to the finish at Gwyndaf Evans Motors in Dolgellau to spray the champagne and take maximum points in the Welsh Championship to boot.
“It’s certainly been a challenging day,” said Francis at the finish. “We have had to battle against the rain, standing water and the car today so it’s been a tough event all round. The lads did a great job to fix the anti-lag issues at service and I’m pleased with how we went considering we had only entered the rally as a test. The stages were great though and we had a good day considering the weather!”
After closest challengers Steve Simpson/Patrick Walsh retired at the halfway halt due to driveshaft issues, the Ford Escort Mk2 crew of Ieuan Rowlands and Emyr Hall returned a fantastic performance to finish second behind Francis, by just over a minute. Andy Davies and Max Freeman battled with the rear brakes locking up on the Subaru Impreza to take third place, their strongest result to date.
BTRDA Rally Championship regular Boyd Kershaw and Mark Fisher took fourth in their Ford Escort MK 2 with Andrew Jones and Dale Furniss mixing with the leading crews in fifth, a performance made more impressive by the fact their Ford Escort Mk2 is a near standard road rally specification example, allowing them to dominate class 3B in the process.
The battle for the National A event honours was not quite so simple, however and was dominated by competitors in the British Historic Championship. Builth Wells resident Jason Pritchard/Phil Clarke took the early blood on the first stage from Ludlow’s Joe Price/Chris Brooks. Pre event favourite Nick Elliott/Dave Price encountered a bale early on and the car would not restart, costing last year’s category winner over 30 seconds in the process.
However, normal service was resumed for Elliott on the second test, clawing four seconds back on Pritchard. The next two stages returned a tit-for-tat battle between the duo and Elliott began a charge back as the weather started to abate, slightly.
They headed into the final stage with just eight seconds separating the pairing with Price in third. But, Pritchard upped his game and took 13 seconds out of Elliott, taking his first Rally North Wales victory. Elliott took a well-deserved second after his problems earlier in the day.
“It’s been a real shame that it was so wet today but the action out on the stages has been fantastc,” said a jubilant Pritchard. “It was a great battle between Nick and I all day long and we have been swapping times pretty much every stage. It certainly would have been close if it wasn’t for his SS1 issue so it’s shaping up to be a great fight for the rest of the year.”
Third in the National A event were David Howells and Robin Hernaman, who climbed from sixth in their Subaru Impreza after a slow start. Brendan Cumiskey and Gerry McVeigh brought the glorious Ford Fiesta R5 over from Ireland in a bid for seat time and duly bagged fourth as he continues to learn the car. Matt Edwards and Will Rogers took fifth in the “borrowed” Opel Kadett and third in the Historic honours.
The event was also a round of the formidable Land Rover Defender Challenge by Bowler Motorsport and Edd Cobley/John Tomley continued their round one winning ways with a dominant victory by almost four minutes from Christian Fermont/Peter Janssens. Andrew Craig and Trevor Cattle took third just over a minute behind and the Defender series provided a thrilling spectacle for those who braved the conditions in the Welsh forests.
A total of 83 competitors managed to complete the route, which utilised some of the stages used on the WRC finale, Wales Rally GB. As well as the national series, the event also formed a round of the ASWMC Loose Surface Stage Rally Championship and ANWCC Forest Stage Rally Championship.
More information about the event and full results are available at www.rallynorthwales.co.uk
Jason Pritchard and Phil Clarke in action in
their Ford Escort Mk2 (National A winners).
Picture captions:
Luke Francis and John H Roberts in action in their Mitsubishi E9 (National B winners).
Photos by Jucy Rally Photography.
ENDS
For more information contact either Bex Hinton on 07540 186092 or Matt Cotton on 07870 216931
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