dylan woodpecker

Saturday the 3rd of September once again saw Dylan Davies and Andy Davies battle it out again in the forests on the Eventsigns Woodpecker stages rally with their navigators, Llion Willliams accompanying Dylan and Max Freeman once again with Andy. The event was to make up seventh round on both the BTRDA rally series and the Welsh National rally championship where both crews would be hoping to add some points to their championship bids.

 

                The rally, organised by the Sixty and Worcestershire Motor Club Limited, gained an impressive entry of some one hundred and sixty crews who would each be competing on six stages, which would include using the welsh Marches and Radnor, and making a total of 39 competitive miles.

                Dylan and Llion had been seeded at nine, with Andy and Max a few places being at fifteen, both once again out on their Subaru Imprezas and both crews having the potential for great results despite being faced with challenging conditions with rain greeting everyone on the morning of the rally. The first stage of the day was Bringewood, where both Lampeter members were within two seconds of each other, Dylan setting a time of four minutes and thirteen seconds and Andy on four minutes fifteen. Dylan commenting that he felt a lot better with the car having had some last minute tweaks to the cars suspension setup and giving him the confidence to push harder on the stages.

andy woodpecker

                Little changed over the next few stages as both crews settled into a rhythm and featured well inside the top twenty on the next stages, the wet weather clearly not an issue for them! By the second service halt Dylan had managed to work his way into the top ten as he lay tenth overall, and Andy who wasn’t far behind was in thirteenth and holding third in group N.

                With just two stages in the Marshes left to run both crews would be making a final push for a decent finish to guarantee a good amount of points for their championship standings. The fifth stage, Hazel Coppice, happened to be one of the shortest of the event, and saw Dylan and Llion post the sixth fastest time, Dylan obviously really pushing the car with his new found confidence, which showed in his times as he climbed up the leader board throughout the day. Andy also featured in the top ten with ninth overall. The final stage of the day was Haye Park, and was the last chance for all of the remaining competitors to make an attack for positions. Dylan went and charged through the stage, recording a very impressive fifth fastest time, which would see him rise to seventh overall, an excellent result considering the difficult season they have had. Andy set a very respectable fourteenth fastest on the final stage, and saw him finish twelfth overall. Both crew doing very well in the difficult conditions and will no doubt be out swapping times in the forests again soon.

Many thanks to Phil Griffiths for the use of his images.