cad eagle

George Williams and Cadog Davies on their way to winning the Eagle (Joseph John Gilberston)

                It’s been a busy end to the year for club members with a number of events taking place. With the long nights now back as winter arrives the road rallying calendar picks up pace with events taking place almost every weekend. The welsh road rally championship approaches the end there were two events still to compete, which naturally attracted members from Lampeter and district motor club on the entry lists.

                The first event to be tackled was the Powys lanes, a 120-mile affair organised by Epynt motor club, and would be the eleventh round of the welsh road rally championship. Once again, the rally started from the Royal Welsh showground in Llanelwedd, and the route would be held over OS maps 147 and 148. Among the 64 entrants were regular navigators Cadog Davies and Dafydd Evans. Once again Cadog was sat with George Williams in George’s Mk2 Ford escort, they were seeded at 3. Dafydd was right behind them at 4 with regular driver Kevin “penclawdd” Jones in Kevin’s Toyota corolla. Also out was Daniel William who was at 18 in his BMW 318TI with regular navigator Shaun Richards.

                Conditions were very tricky with the lanes being very slippery with sleet and snow present on higher ground. The opening section began near Aberdw and went around the Edw valley and looped around Glascwm before finishing at Hundred house. There were a few time controls in this section with TC1C and TC1E giving droppers where time penalties were gathered. Here at TC1C George and Cadog picked up 50 seconds of penalties and Daniel and Shaun picked up 55. Unfortunately, it was a very short rally for Kevin and Dafydd who retired early on with a broken diff on the Toyota. At TC1E George and Cadog managed 1 minute and 44 seconds as they were held up on that section. Unfortunately, Daniel and Shaun also retired as the bolts holding on the rear brake callipers sheared on the BMW, forcing them into retirement.

                The second section went from Camnant to Bettws and was another section that included a couple of tight sections where penalties were gathered. TC2B and TC2D were they were located and here George and Cadog managed 40 seconds at TC2B and 31 seconds at TC2D. The third section began just north of Bleddfa and looped around to Dolau, there were four time controls located on this section and George and Cadog managed to pass through all of them without picking up any penalties, they were in fact the only competitors to do so, this put the back in the running after being held up on the earlier section.

                At the petrol halt George and Cadog lay in second overall with 3 minutes and 41 seconds of penalties. They were 18 seconds off the event leader, with the second half to go it was all to play for.

                The fourth section was a short one that ran south of New Radnor and was another section where penalties were gained, George and Cadog only picked up 9 seconds here, putting them into the overall lead of the event. The fifth section of the event began near Gladestry and finished just outside of Hay-on -Wye. There was one tight section here at TC5B where George and Cadog picked up penalties, where they gained 44 seconds, increasing their lead. Section six included a loop on the lanes around Painscastle and again included a tight section, which was almost cleaned by George and Cadog who only picked up 1 second of penalties.

The seventh section of the event used the tracks and lanes around Llanstephan, here again George and Cadog only had one second of penalties following a serious attack over the section. This helped them increase their lead further. The final section of the rally used the lanes west of the A470 and ran from Little Hill to Dollynwydd. There were a couple of time controls in this section and here George and Cadog did best with excellent times of only 19 seconds at TC8B and 31 seconds at TC8C.

                This meant that at the end of an enjoyable but challenging event George Williams and Cadog Davies finished in first overall with a total penalty count of 5 minutes and 26 seconds, their winning margin was 1 minute and 46 seconds ahead of their nearest rival, this gave them both 100 points in their welsh championship bids.

                The next event and final event in the welsh road rally championship was to be the Newtown and district automobile club organised Eagle rally, taking place on the weekend of the 7th and 8th of December, and starting from Newtown itself and using OS map 136 and featured an all tarmac route of some 115 miles for competitors to negotiate.

                Seeded at 1 was Andy Davies who was looking for a hat trick on this event, he was in his regular Subaru Impreza IDZ and once again had Michael Gilbey on map duties. At 5 were George Williams and Cadog Davies once again in the mk2 Ford escort, after finally having some luck with a win on the Powys Lanes they were hoping for more of the same here. Dafydd Evans was once again on map duties, but for this event he would be with Martin Curzon in Martin’s Mk1 Ford escort, they were seeded at 7. Daniel Williams was at 33 with regular navigator Shaun Richards in their BMW 318TI. Daniel is currently lying in third overall in the welsh road rally championship and was hoping for a strong result here to guarantee a podium finish in the championship. Andrew Davies was once again navigating for Jordan Evans in Jordan’s Peugeot 206 GTI. They were seeded at 52. Rounding off club members at 74 was Steffan Evans in a Subaru impreza, he had Connah Urquhart navigating for him.

                The first half of the event was some 75 miles in length and the competitive mileage began just outside of Clatter and went West before finishing just outside of Trefeglwys. From there the route then went West again and finished just outside of Staylittle, before looping around the Clywedog reservoir and finishing just outside of Llanidloes. Then the route crossed the A470 and used the lanes to the east of Llandinam.

                At the petrol halt Martin Curzon and Dafydd Evans held an eighteen second lead with 2 minutes and 1 second. George Williams and Cadog Davies is who they were ahead of on 2 minutes and 19 seconds in second place. Daniel Williams and Shaun Richards were in eighth overall with 4 minutes and 54 seconds. Unfortunately, Jordan and Andrew retired as well as Steffan and Connah. Andy and Michael had 1 minute and 5 seconds but had picked up a fail so they lay in thirty-eighth overall.

                From here the route used the lanes on the very eastern side of the map near Ceri and crossed over the A489 towards Llanmerewig. Time control 17 was located along this section which is unfortunately where Martin and Dafydd lost their rally lead as they slid wide on a corner and spent 30 seconds trying to get back on to the road. The route then headed north and crossed the A483 and looped around New Mills before heading back to Newtown for the finish.

It had been a tough rally in very tricky weather conditions but after 28 Time controls and visiting all corners of the map everyone who managed to finish had enjoyed themselves thoroughly and were keen to enter next year. Claiming another win were George Williams and Cadog Davies who had a penalty of 2 minutes and 46 seconds, their winning margin was 1 second ahead of Martin Curzon and Dafydd Evans that finished on 2 minutes and 47 seconds. Daniel Williams and Shaun Richards finished in an excellent seventh overall and fifth in class with 7 minutes and 23 seconds in their BMW

Many thanks must go to Joseph John Gilbertson for the use of his image for this report.