PRYCE WINS WALES’S FIRST CLOSED-ROAD RALLY
Rali Bae Ceredigion was first closed-road event in Wales under new laws
Organiser: Newtown & District Motor Club; Aberystwyth MC; Lampeter MC; Teifi Valley MC When: September 8 Where: Aberystwyth, Ceredigion Championships: FMP Rally Challenge Stages: 8 Starters: 120.
After a long lay-off and driving a Hyundai i20 R5 for the first time, Osian Pryce and Dale Furniss became the maiden winners of a closed-road rally in Wales after taking victory on the inaugural
Rali Bae Ceredigion.
On the opening stage, where Meirion Evans was fastest, Pryce didn’t find the Hyundai quite to his liking. Over the next three stages, he was far happier and traded fastest times with fellow i20 crew Tom Cave/dale Bowen.
He arrived at service with a lead of just over 10 seconds while Evans retired after going off in his Skoda Fabia R5.
During the afternoon Pryce and Furniss were quickest on the fifth test, before setting second fastest time on the remaining three stages to secure the win by just under 8s. “I’m more than happy,” said Pryce. “I didn’t expect that with the tough competition.”
For Cave, the morning hadn’t gone so well. His i20 suffered with brake problems from the off and hit a bale on the second test. However, things improved in the afternoon, where he set three fastest times to finish a comfortable second. “The damage was done this morning although the car’s been great this afternoon and it’s been an enjoyable event,” reflected Cave.
Jason Tauber-pritchard/phil Clarke adopted a sensible approach on the trickier sections in their borrowed Ford Escort Mk2 and were in third place at the halfway point, 7s ahead of Hugh Hunter/rob Fagg. The Focus WRC05 driver wasn’t happy with his pacenotes and was planning a change to harder tyres for the afternoon, as Damian Cole/max Freeman followed closely in their Ford Fiesta RS WRC.
Despite the harder tyres he used in the afternoon failing to heat up enough, Pritchard brought the Escort back in one piece in an excellent third. Cole, whose Fiesta went better on stiffer settings, moved to fourth as Hunter failed to finish the afternoon’s stages.
The drive of the day came from Meilyr and Rhodri Evans who brought their class-winning Escort Mk2 home in fifth place, one position ahead of Historic class winners Martin Mccormack/barney Mitchell.
Results
1 Osian Pryce/dale Furniss (Hyundai i20 R5)
42m44.2s; 2 Tom Cave/dale Bowen (i20 R5) +7.7s;
3 Jason Tauber-pritchard/phil Clarke (Ford Escort Mk2); 4 Damian Cole/max Freeman (Ford Fiesta RS WRC); 5 Meilyr/rhodri Evans (Ford Escort Mk2); 6 Martin Mccormack/barney Mitchell (Ford Escort Mk2); 7 Dyfrig James/emyr Jones (Ford Escort Mk2); 8 Huw James/iwan Jones (Ford Escort Mk2); 9 Dylan Davies/llion Williams (Ford Escort Mk2); 10 Wayne Sisson/neil Shanks
(Mitsubishi Lancer E10).
Class winners: Lloyd Morgan/marc Clatworthy
(Nissan Micra); Rhidian Daniels/tomos Whittle (Citroen C1 Max); Sean/emma Crowley (Peugeot 205 GTI); Evans/evans; James/jones; Cole/freeman; Sisson/shanks; Mccormack/ Mitchell; Jamie Jukes/ellie Williams (Vauxhall Astra).