There was scintillating action on the Mid Wales Stages whilst the weather did it’s best to throw every possible thing at the crews. Through the hail, rain, sleet, snow and winds we managed to just about keep going and we witnessed a superb victory for Nick Elliott & Dave Price (Escort MkII) by just over 28 seconds. They took the lead on stage 2 after Ben Llewellin & Ross Whittock (Escort MkII) had taken the first stage. Joe Price & Chris Brooks (Escort MkII) were fastest on stage two by just 0.3s from Elliott to move up to 2nd place before the next stage saw Meirion & Steffan Evans (Escort MkII) move up to 2nd place behind Elliott, after a superb stage. A puncture then cost Evans on the final stage as he dropped to fifth overall allowing Matthew Robinson & Sam Collis (Escort MkII) up in to 2nd overall. Price was third despite taking 2.5s out of Robinson on the final stage to finish just 0.4s behind.
In the categories Jason Pritchard & Phil Clarke (Escort MkII) took the FIA class from Evans following his puncture, in 4th overall. David Stokes & Guy Weaver (Escort MkI) took the post historic class by just over half a minute from Rupert Lomax & Rich Jones (Escort MkI) with Rikki Proffitt & James Whitaker victorious in the historic class in their Porsche 911. Completing the category winners were Trevor Hancock & Jody Watson who brought home their MG Metro to category 4 honours in 65th overall.
There was also the small matter of the modern rally and with a plethora of WR cars on the entry list the action proved to be just as dramatic. Hugh Hunter & Andy Marchbank (Impreza WRC) looked a good bet and were seeded first, duly going fastest on the first stage but Jamie Anderson & Jon Scott (Lancer WRC) went fastest on the 2nd stage to lead by less than a second at the mid point. Anderson then blew the field apart going half a minute faster then anyone else in the Sweet Lamb/Hafren stage before going fastest on the final stage. Their victory margin was over 45 seconds from Hunter with Alex Allingham & Alun Cook (Impreza) another 40 seconds further back.
90right UK Rallying 