Edwards looks ahead to the iconic Cambrian Rally event
AS far as birthdays go, for Llandudno’s Matt Edwards the idea of racing in the dark with his Ford Escort Mk2 would be ideal - and that is exactly what the local rally ace did last weekend.
Competing in the historic section of the Trackrod Rally, Edwards took his Swift Group backed Ford Escort into an early lead after the first stage of Friday evening.
Sadly though, the DMack Tyre supported driver was not able to maintain that lead through stage two.
He said: “We touched a bank early on in the stage, causing a puncture. Usually you can try and continue, but as the tyre began to break we didn’t want to risk damaging the suspension or brakes so had to stop and change the wheel.”
As dawn broke on Saturday morning, Edwards and navigator Paul Morris found themselves at the bottom end of the leader- board standings.
With hopes of a win now effectively over, the plan was to attack the stages and see how much time could be made up over the day’s six tests in the Yorkshire forests.
Fighting his way back to 13th overall, Edwards was impressed with his day’s progression and his Geoff Jones Motorsport prepared Escort.
“It’s a difficult day when the win is out of sight, but we got our heads down and managed to climb back to a pretty respectable position knowing we lost over three minutes with the puncture,” he added.
“We’ve demonstrated great pace here today and over the past few events we have done.”
Edwards now looks forward to the Cambrian Rally, which starts on October 17 from Llandudno and takes in classic North Wales forests such as Penmachno and Clocaenog.