WILLETT AND DAVIES TAKE ANOTHER MINI EPYNT WIN
Organiser: Herefordshire Motor Club When: June 5 Where: Epynt Ranges, Powys Championships: Hirefit King of Epynt Championship Stages: 10 Starters: 74
Once early leaders Andy Fraser/ Michael Calvert had retired, 2014 winners Dave Willett and John Davies were able to control the pace at the head of the field, overcoming a lack of digital dashboard display to take a comfortable win on the Welsh Marches Mini Epynt Stages.
Over the opening two stages, it was Fraser who set the pace before his Darrian was retired following a fire on the stop line of SS3. Also in trouble were Adrian Spencer/ Mark Hewitt who dropped from second to 46th position after their Subaru Impreza WRC left the road near Four Ways Bridge.
Stages three and four were cancelled, as a crew were airlifted to hospital (They were reported to be stable in hospital as MN went to press) and on the next stage it was Jason Pritchard/steve Mcphee who were fastest in their Ford Escort, two seconds up on Willett/davies who now held the lead.
Already out of the event was Mark Jones, whose BMW suffered a broken brake pipe. Bryan Davies also stopped when the turbo on his Ford Focus failed.
Spencer/hewitt were making their way back up the field, and fastest time on stage six yielded a move into the top 20. However, they were still a long way off Willett, who extended his lead with fastest times on the next three tests.
Going into the last stage, Ian Caddy/alan Thomas had overcome gearbox problems to hold second place, before mechanical woes accounted for their Ford Escort.
Sean Crowley/emma Jones took the runner-up spot, their day getting better after an early excursion into a field left their Mitsubishi Colt down the order.
Melvyn Evans/patrick Walsh overcame braking issues on their Ford Escort to finish behind Crowley, though weren’t eligible for the overall position after finishing in the top five of a previous Epynt rally. Scotsman Steven Clark took the final podium position, the Mitsubishi Lancer driver finding his times improved when he adopted a neater style of driving on the latter stages.
Pritchard/mcphee were next up, while Spencer/hewitt would have taken sixth but for the rule making them ineligible having finished in the top five of an event on Epynt. However, the pair did achieve their aim and take home a good haul of King of Epynt points. Mike Williams/ken Bills took a class win in their MG ZR, while Mark Gamble/steve Link won the 1600cc class in their Suzuki Swift. Despite a faulty fuel pump, Lloyd Morgan/ellie Williams won the 1400cc class in their Micra.