MELVYN EVANS SWITCHES TO FIESTA FOR DOWN RALLY BID
Welsh man has sold trusty subaru and de buts ford fiesta
Melvyn Evans will headline this weekend’s Down Rally, making a first start in his new Ford Fiesta RS WRC against strong opposition for the next round of the MSA Asphalt Rally Championship.
Welshman Evans has sold one of the most successful cars in UK and Irish rallying – his Subaru Impreza S12B – after winning both rallies he’d competed in the car with so far this season. He will drive the Fiesta rented out by Melvyn Evans Motorsport to Luke Francis in the BTRDA Rally Series.
“The people who run the rally were telling me I needed to come over and do it,” said Evans.
“The Fiesta is in one piece after the Nicky Grist so we’re going to convert that from gravel to Tarmac, and go and have a run and see what it’s like. I’m not expecting much. There’s some nice stages like Hamilton’s Folly, that sort of stage.
“We’re just going for fun and to enjoy it, and we have a few customers out too.”
Evans will be joined by son Meirion who gets his second R5 outing of the year in a Fiesta after competing on Rally Tendring and Clacton.
Merion said: “It depends on whether I look after it or not whether I get more outings. The stages are a bit trickier than Clacton so we’ll just see where we are. We won’t get caught up in results. Desi [Henry] and Jonny [Greer] are a good benchmark.”
Jason Pritchard will be hoping to get his Asphalt season back on track after retiring on the Isle of Man, and starts car two in his Ford Focus WRC. David Bogie starts third, with Dessie Henry and Jonny Greer, both Irish Tarmac frontrunners. Wayne Sisson at car number nine leads the Asphalt series heading into the fourth round, which has a capacity entry of 130.