Woodpecker Rally

The Woody didn’t fail to deliver as the last stage saw Connor McCloskey & Francis Regan (Impreza WRC) go fastest and turn a 4 second deficit into a 2 second victory. They had been playing catch up all day after Stephen Petch & Ian Windress (Focus WRC) took an early lead and only lost the lead during the final stage. Euan Thorburn & Paul Beaton (Focus WRC) were only 4 seconds further back as they pushed on the final pair of stages, over unfamiliar stages. Group N was tight too as Luke Francis & John Roberts (Evo IX) were tied with Jamie Anderson & Ella Flynn (Evo IX) going into the final stage but a push in the first two miles saw them 3 seconds ahead at our point and they kept this to the end to grab 4th overall too.

Mewla Rally

Our 2nd trip to Epynt in August and on the Mewla Peter Lloyd & Carl Sorensen (Impreza WRC) stormed home to a two minute victory. He did not have it easy though as Damian Cole (Focus WRC) and Steve Simpson (Impreza WRC) were not far behind but a dramatic 10th stage saw Cole retire and Simpson limp through the stage. So it was a superb 2nd overall for John Indri & Peter James (Darrian T90 GTR) taking the 2WD victory in the process with Eian Pritchard & Steve McPhee (Focus WRC) a fine third overall.

AWDC Sweet Lamb

Our first off-road championship round in 5 years and a visit to a favourite venue too, Sweet Lamb. This event was a bit more flat out than usual as the route used was primarily the rally stages but mixed in were some tricky quarry sections and mud links cutting between the gravel tracks. It was these quarry sections that seemed to create the most damage, with several broken suspensions and steering racks, during the course of the event. With 10 runs in total we saw a wide variety of action and the various sounds of V6’s and V8’s roaring over the Welsh hills made this a Sunday to remember.

Tyneside Stages

After a day of mostly sunshine but some sharp showers Damian Cole & James Morgan (Focus WRC) took victory by 2 seconds. The event saw numerous stages ‘cleaned’, so the positions remained close all day but going in to the penultimate stage Steve Simpson & Pat Walsh (Impreza WRC) had been leading by 16 seconds but a broken/lost wheel saw their rally end midway through SS11. Cole had been battling all day and on the final stage John Indri & Peter James (Darrian T90 GTR) almost clawed the gap back taking 5s of the 7s lead. Completing the podium 16s back were Simon Mauger & Brian Cammack (Escort MkII).

Neath Valley Stages

A bumper entry across 4 fields saw the best entry for the Neath Valley Stages to date. The main draw would be the Historics and Martin McCormack & Phil Clarke (Escort MkII) took a last gasp victory from Nick Elliott & Dave Price (Escort MkII). McCormack lost time on stage 2 losing quarter of a minute before playing catch up and getting back to just 1.1s behind Elliott, ahead of the final and longest stage of the event. McCormack gave it maximum attack through Margam ultimately winning by 0.7s. Jason Pritchard & Dale Furniss (Escort MkII) completed the podium taking the FIA class also.