Third British title in a row for Edwards
MATT EDWARDS won the British Rally Championship drivers’ title for a recordbreaking third time in a row after taking his Yuasa Rally Team Volkswagen Polo GTI R5 to a sensational victory on the Modern Tyres Ulster Rally at the weekend.
Overnight and midday rain made the fast and bumpy closed country lanes of County Down extremely slippery, yet Matt never put a scratch on the car as he won the 94-stage mile event by over two and a half minutes.
Darren Garrod wins the codrivers title for a second time, having also guided Matt to his first title in 2018.
The Ulster Rally saw an incredible fight between Matt and his Melvyn Evans Motorsport stablemate and BRC title rival Osian Pryce.
Taking Pirelli slick tyres, Matt blasted through the opening damp loop to lead by 7.4 seconds at first service in Newry.
A heavy shower of rain forced a more cautious approach, with Matt losing the lead after SS5 – only to regain it after a stunning drive through SS6 gave him an 8.3 second advantage.
For the final loop Matt went out on Pirelli wets and extended his lead to 9.1 seconds.
The final run over the longest 13.47-mile Bronte Homeland
stage (SS8) was always going to be significant and anticipating a big attack Matt drove a faultless stage.
It wasn’t until he’d completed the penultimate stage did Matt discover that Pryce had crashed mid-way through the test.
Matt still had to finish the event and score maximum points to secure the title and a cool drive through the final stage brought him his third BRC drivers’ crown.
“My mindset for the Ulster Rally was simple – just go as fast as we can on every stage and try to win. Nothing less would have given us the title,” said Conwy-based Matt.
“I knew that the stage that Osian went off on was probably make or break for him. He had to do something special in there and my goal on the penultimate stage was to not give him any opportunity to take a big chunk of time off me. The conditions were very tricky and we obviously didn’t know at the time that he’d unfortunately gone off as we were first on the road, but we really nailed the stage that time – really clean, tidy, fast and committed. I felt sure we’d done enough before the news come through.
“The title wasn’t won yet as we still had to finish the event and score maximum BRC points, and there was just massive relief inside the car when we crossed the finish line.
“To win three British rally tiles in a row is very special, but what makes it even more special for me is that it’s been in the making for two years.
“Because of Covid we’ve had to work hard to ensure everyone remained engaged with the programme and to make sure the opportunity to win the British title three times in a row was still on when competition was allowed to restart.
“So many people had faith in me and together we went out and achieved British Rally Championship history.
“It hasn’t all been plain sailing this year. I made a mistake on Mull, which could have written off our title challenge, and our issue on the Cambrian could have certainly ended it.
“It’s too easy to park the car up when something goes wrong, but when you have so many people involved behind the scenes you have to think of the incredible effort they’ve all put in too.
“We’ve had the pace all year. A few things haven’t gone as planned, but we always believed winning the British title would happen.
“Everyone knows how much the British Rally Championship means to me and I’m very proud to have won the title three times in a row.”*