JAFFA SUCCESS FOR PTMC PAIR
PORT Talbot Motor Club duo Phil Turner and Simon Anthony won the Pembrey Motorsports Centre-based West Wales Rally Spares ‘Jaffa’ Christmas Stages again.
The TCS Plant Hire-backed Mitsubishi Evo 9 was the winner in flooded conditions last year and took another first place this time in equally treacherous conditions.
Landscaping work on the track surrounds allowed mud to wash over the tarmacadam in places after the heavy rain, and the rally began in wet conditions as fog swirled in off the sea.
Two laps of stage one were mainly on the racing circuit, with a long central blast up and down the main runway into the circuit and through the slippery kart track.
As the leading cars crossed the stage finish line it looked as though the PTMC pair faced a massive threat, West Walian Jamie Jukes and James Morgan faster than anyone in their Spencer Sport Mitsubishi Mirage and 22 seconds up.
The Mitsubishi held joint third with Tom Barber’s British Rallying BMW Compact, which looked spectacular in mostly well-held power slides by the Teifi Valley driver, though the third and fourth stages got away from them as big spins lost around a minute in total.
Gavin Edwards and Caron Tomlin- son beat them both by a single second to the stage second in a brave drive with their Vavnol Heating/RJ Graphics Ford Escort Stage, their rally-long pace bringing a class win and second place overall.
Turner was using a newly-fitted ‘paddle shift’ gearbox system for the first time. The TCS Mitsubishi was fastest on every remaining stage as the Mirage challenge faded, a puncture slowing the Spencer Sport car and prefacing a gearbox change that proved unreliable, and very slow times ended in retirement.
It became a Mitsubishi v Ford Escort battle, both cars finding staying Phil Turner and Simon Anthony won again at Pembrey. Picture: vgpics. on track hard on occasions but doing fine jobs.
Turner’s grandson Thomas Cooper, a former winner at the venue, also retired this time, his Number One Home Improvements car towed in after just one stage after centre differential failure left the car with no drive.
Class winners included Tom Barber/Ioan Lloyd, who also took fourth overall in the MTech Motorsport BMW, 11 seconds behind the third podium spot men William Mains/Arfon Griffiths, their WCS Enviro & Building-backed Vauxhall Nova starting 21st but the Llandysul driver having another characteristic giantkilling drive to that podium and class victory.
Sean Jones/Elliot Roberts took the Class 2 win in their Mazda MX5, and Mike Roberts/Hefin Jenkins were winners of Class 3 in the Escort Mk2.
Edwards and Tomlinson were the winners of Class 4 to add to their impressive second overall, some half-aminute down on the four-wheeldrive Mitsubishi that had a huge traction advantage.
The Barber/Lloyd BMW took Class 5 with a massive lead over the opposition of more than four minutes, while Jim Munden/Danny Hutchins’s Class 6 margin was more than three minutes in what had been a Subaru Impreza three-way fight.
Rhodri Evans/Ian Taylor were triumphant in Class 7 in their Ford Escort, the best mixed crew award went to Luke Morgan and Theresa Fossey in the Simpsons-Rusty Thruster Racing Talbot Sunbeam, and the prestigious Jaffa Trophy for the best turnedout Ford Escort went to the North Wales Rally Services Mk2 of Hywel Davies/Clive Jones.
Clerk of the course Ryland James said: “We had competitors from Kilkenny in Ireland, Fort William in Scotland and Cornwall in England — not bad for a clubman event!
“All in all it was a great tribute to the memory of Gareth Roberts.”