Eat my dust
Everything was set for another exciting Welsh Hillrally . . .
The competition was as close as ever for this year’s exciting Welsh Hill Rally
THE 2019 edition of the Welsh Hillrally returned to Walters Arena in South Wales and again rather than what people expect as traditional Welsh weather – wet and cold – it was mostly dry and dusty.
Despite a lower than hoped for entrants’ list, the scene was set for the anticipating battle for top spot between last year’s winner Paul Rowlands in a Polaris UTV and Justin Brichall in a Lofthouse Freelander. While it still looks a bit like a Land Rover Freelander it is in reality a purpose-built independent suspension prototype hill rally special.
Walters Arena is an unforgiving place and one small mistake can result in lost time, a puncture or even worse vehicle damage, then there is unforeseen mechanical problems. So everything was to play for and no one was taking anything
for granted, every driver was in with a chance of a good result and just a single mistake could change everything.
The action started on Friday evening with two short stages of just under two miles each, run in class order with the standard and small-capacity engined vehicles first. Friday’s results would set Saturday’s start for the ten stages of 60 miles, followed by another eight stages of 52 miles, so 20 stages and 116 miles in total. Anything could happen.
The first two stages went without too many incidents as the drivers and co-drivers got settled with the Hillrally’s timings and their pace. The only casualty was the Bowler Bulldog, which finished the second stage on the end of a towrope with a gearbox transmission failure. Without a spare part on them the Bowler was retired, the first of five retirements on this year’s Hillrally, the majority of the other retirements at least managing to complete until Sunday, when the constant pounding that the ground at Walters Arena gives, finally took its toll on them. Several competitors also suffered punchures and were forced to change a wheel which lost them around five minutes.
As the times came in for the first stages everyone seemed to be just a few seconds apart, then Paul Rowlands went out and took a good ten seconds off the best time. But the first two stages were short and technical, so suited his turbo Polaris UTV perfectly. Justin Brichall in the Lofthouse Freelander then did better, finishing the two stages a full 20 seconds ahead. The evening’s banter mainly focused on would anyone be able to keep up, let alone overtake them.
Saturday’s stages saw more of the same with the lead being dominated by the independent suspension prototypes and the UTVS with the Land Rover-based Tomcats and Challengers hanging on
around 20 seconds behind. The soft top Tomcat of Scottish crew Cameron Crow / Pauline Stevenson, which looks more like a Land Rover than the others, set a good pace and finished the Hillrally in 15th overall, but some 43 minutes behind. I don’t know what it is but a Land Rover with a tilt on always looks so right.
Lower down the score board there were some ‘real’ Land Rovers in the form of the standard class Discovery 1 of John Pickering / Sean Mathieson and the Freelander’s of Ian Linford / Demelza Scholes and Brian Chase / David Andrew. They had a mixed experience with the Ravenol sponsored Freelander of Chase suffering the worse. On the Saturday they picked up eight maximum times on the 10 stages, but had better luck on the Sunday and finished in 23rd place – almost three hours behind the winner. Pickering in the V8 Disco 1 finished in 22nd place two hours behind the winner and the MPB4X4 supported Freelander of Linford finished in 18th place an hour behind.
Phil Bayliss is normally another standard class Land Rover competitor in his Td5 Defender, but this year he changed to his 100-inch rear engined special,and he was to finish in 12th place.
The battle at the front was always between Justin Brichall / Jonny Koonja and Paul Rowlands / Neil Lloyd. Rowland’s Polaris had the edge on the tight technical sections but when it came to the fastflowing smoother sections you could hear all the UTVS topping out on maximum speed while the 4x4 indy suspension prototypes with 4.0-litre and above engines had the power to spare and certainly took the advantage. Brichall almost consistently taking a ten second lead on every stage, in fact he set fastest time on every stage bar one.
Another Rowland, Jason Rowland with Matthew Hall, in another UTV, this time a Camam finished 3rd with another Polaris of Ian Gregg / Adam Evans in 4th despite only having two-wheel drive for the last day. Rounding off the top five was Rob Bool / Victoria Vaughan in a Challenge 4x4 which despite a rear engine has a Land Rover front.
Despite the rise of the UTV vehicles, the 2019 Welsh Hillrally showed that Land Rover – in whatever guise or form – can still hold its own in cross country motorsport. Top stuff
A hill rally is a massive undertaking by any organiser and again Jon Aston as Clerk of Course and main organiser, along with members of the That’s Motorsport club and help from many others, ran a highly successful event. In all, there were around 150 officials, marshals, rescue crews, time keepers and radio marshals involved in the running of the Hillrally and without their dedication and commitment motorsport like this wouldn’t happen.
Thank you all for another brilliant weekend. Date for 2020 is still to be confirmed, information on the Welsh Hillrally can be found on the event’s website and Facebook page. thewelshhillrally.com