Trackrod Forest Stages

Glorious conditions once again bathed the North Yorkshire Moors for the Trackrod Forest Stages. With two separate events there was plenty of action to catch and in the BTRDA championship Charlie Payne & Carl Williamson (Fiesta) took a comfortable victory of almost two minutes from Damian Cole & Jack Morton (Fiesta WRC). By no means was that the whole story as Stephen Petch & Ian Windress (Fiesta R5+) had gone fastest on the opening stage and the fourth stage to lie half a minute behind Payne, before the final pair of stages. Sadly Staindale would prove the undoing as a throttle stuck wide open forcing Petch in to retirement. With Cole up to a comfortable 2nd overall, the final stage saw a shoot out for 3rd overall. Phil & Simon Pickard (Impreza) held it by just a single second from Pat Naylor & Ian Lawrence (Evo IX) but it was Naylor who came out in 3rd overall as Pickard lost 15 seconds, dropping to 6th overall.

Harry Flatters Rally

Wet and windy conditions dominated the day on this years Harry Flatters which saw Damian Cole & Jack Morton take their Fiesta WRC to a maiden victory. At the lunch break they were second overall after an understandably tentative start in the new car which saw an inspired Mark Jones & Terry Martin (BMW M3) take the lead by 18 seconds. A string of 3 further fastest stage times saw Cole win by 49 seconds with Jones a superb 2nd overall. A broken windscreen wiper saw Eian Pritchard & Steve McPhee (Focus WRC) drop a whole heap of time on the opening stage but with that fault fixed they came back through the field to finish 3rd overall.

Severn Valley Rally

The Severn Valley Rally saw victory for Bob Ceen & Andy Bull (Impreza WRC) after a dominant display saw them build their lead up throughout the event. 2014 winners Luke Francis & John Roberts (Evo IX) were 2nd, some 24 seconds back with Dylan Davies & Llion Williams (Impreza) completing the podium 46 seconds further back. In the Historics Richard Hill & David Jones (Escort MkII) took victory from Jason Pritchard & Phil Clarke (Escort MkII) by ten seconds with Paul Barrett & Dai Roberts (Escort MkII) completed the podium, eight seconds further behind.

Mid Wales Stages

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.

Red Kite Stages

The gravel rallying season got underway in snowy conditions on the Red Kite Stages and with conditions getting better as the early crews scrubbed the snow off the stages, it was David Stokes & Guy Weaver (Escort MkI) were early leaders. With stage 2 cancelled and another fastest stage time on stage 3 Stokes now had a 12 second lead at service from 2014 winner Richard Hill & Iwan Jones (Escort MkII). The afternoon would prove to be different as the snow had largely gone. Jason Pritchard & Phil Clarke (Escort MkII) were fastest on stage 4 to close in on the top 3, as Terry Brown & Den Golding (Escort MkII) jumped up to 2nd overall, just 7 seconds behind Stokes.

Trackrod Rally

It was a tight battle at the top. Steve Perez & Paul Spooner (Focus WRC) only set one fastest stage time on the first stage but they held on to take victory from Paul Bird & Aled Davies (Focus WRC) by 3.4 seconds. Bird went fastest on the final 3 stages but it proved not be enough, so the title fight is set up superbly for the final round in 3 weeks time. David Weston & Kirsty Riddick (Imprzea WRC) completed the podium just over 20 seconds further back, after setting the fastest time through the 2nd stage of the rally. Ignoring the 1400’s the first crew home in the 2WD rally, aka Silver Star, were Martyn Hawkswell & Benjamin Cohen (Escort MkII).

Neath Valley Stages

A few showers peppered what was otherwise a sunny and blustery day down in the Vale of Neath. In the Historic rally Nick Elliott & Dave Price (Escort MkII) made up for a narrow defeat in 2013 to take victory by just under 20 seconds. A string of fastest times were enough to keep a hard charging Richard Hill & Steffan Evans (Escort MkII) at bay. Completing the podium were Meirion Evans & Iwan Jones (Escort MkII) just under 15 seconds further back. Tomas & Eurig Davies (Escort MkII) took the FIA class with David Stokes & Guy Weaver (Escort MkI) taking category 2 and category 1 went to Graham Waite & Gill Cotton (Amazon).

Severn Valley Rally

The weather looked after us better in 2014 than it did in 2013 and with a bumper entry, plus vantage points for us on 4 of the 8 stages, it proved to be a good days motorsport. Nick Elliott & Dave Price (Escort MkII) looked fast every time we saw them so their victory came as no surprise to us but they only took the win by 13 seconds from Richard Hill & Steffan Evans (Escort MkII). Of the 4 times we saw Elliott he was fastest on 3 of those stages, the only 3 he won, but with 5 crews setting fastest stage times it just goes to show how competitive this championship really is. Ben Llewellin & Paul Williams (Escort MkII) completed the podium a further 9 seconds back on their WWRS championship debut in the Historic category.

Tour of Hamsterley

Our 2nd visit to the Tour of Hamsterley saw a superb win by Matt Edwards & Kim Baker (Escort MkII). Seeded at car 11 they set a first stage time outside of the top ten but after that they set the fastest time on 7 of the remaining 8 stages. They did not have it easy and only took the lead by a few seconds after the 3rd stage. Edwards then blitzed the two Raby Castle tests in the middle of the event. Matthew Robinson & Sam Collis (Escort MkII) were just 12 seconds behind after stage 5 but they did not come out Hamsterley forest as they retired on stage 8 with alternator failure. So it was now up to Nick Elliott & Dave Price to take up the chase, who had set fastest time on the first stage in their Escort MkII.

Mid Wales Stages