Rhys Wyn Davies and Gerwyn James on route to overall victory on the Rali Ceredigion National rally (Aneurin James)
The weekend of the 4th 5th and 6th of September would see one of the very highlights in the British rallying calendar with the return of the JDS machinery Rali Ceredigion. Once again members of Lampeter and district motor club would be heavily involved in the running of the event with many volunteering their time in numerous roles including PR residents on route and marshalling on the stages, they would be part of the monumental effort in running a closed road international rally.
Once again the rally would be welcoming both the British rally championship (where club member Meirion Evans competes) as well as the European rally championship. Also joining the rally for the first time would be the European historic rally championship adding to an already impressive field of entries.
The rally would be divided into three separate events, and all of them would see club members in action. Going first would be the international event which would see the European and British championship contenders go head to head, with Meirion Evans in his Melvyn Evans motorsport prepared Toyota GR Yaris looking for a strong result, he and navigator Dale Furniss being no stranger to the stages being included in this year's route. They would be seeded at number 14.
Following on from the international rally would be the historic rally, which would see a small handful of club members present. First off at number 102 would be Tomas Davies, who would once again have regular Shane Buckley calling the notes. They would be in Thomas’ BMW M3. Tyrtsan Bryn Evans would be making his debut on the stages having spent some time in the lanes on road rallies. He would be calling the notes for Dyfrig James in Dyfrig’s Ford escort RS1800 Mk2, and they would be seeded at 105. At 107 would be Andy Davies in his Ford escort RS1800 Mk2. He would be paired with Owain Davies for this event. Right behind them at 108 would be Arwel Evans in his own Ford escort RS1800 Mk2, he would have Jordan Jones on the notes.
The national rally would have the strongest representation by the club, with first member on the entry list going to Dylan Davies and Mark Glennerster who would once again be out in Dylan’s R5 Skoda Fabia. They would be within strong contention for a top result on this event, both crew members having some success on the event in previous years, their seeding would be 202. At 204 would be Rhys Wyn Davies, who along with Gerwyn James would be out in Rhys’ Darrian T90 GTR+. This Darrian having a newly developed 1.6 ecoboost turbo motor powering it, Rhys would be working with Straker Performance Engineering as they develop these engines for rallying. Right behind at 205 would be Ieuan Evans in his Ford escort Mk2, he would be another competitor using a Honda engine to power the car, with Gareth Parry in the navigator's seat they would be one of the crews to keep an eye on for some competitive times. Dafydd Evans would be reunited with Gareth Edwards once again at number 209. They would once again be tackling the stages in Gareth’s Darrian T90 GTR+, the Darrian being a very popular platform for tarmac rallying on the British isles.
Dorian Evans would once again be sat alongside Hywel Davies in Hywel’s Ford escort RS1800 mk2, they would be seeded at 225. Navigating at number 22 would be Llyr Davies, who was once again sitting with Gethin Dafis, this year Ford escort RS1800 Mk2 would be their vehicle of choice. Jonathan Davies and Owen Rowcliffe would once again be paired up, they would be seeded at 253 in Jonathan’s Peugeot 207. At 262 were Arwyn Jones and Matthew Pryce in Arwyn’s Ford escort Mk2. This would be the first closed road rally for both members and they would no doubt be in the battle for road rally class honours. At 267 would be Alan Gaunt and Rhys Jones in Alan’s Darrian T90. This would be Alan’s first attempt on the Rali Ceredigion, and it would be Rhys’ second attempt, the first being back in 2019 during the first ever running of the event! Rounding off club members at 289 were Jac Jones and Marc Hughes in Jac’s Talbot Sunbeam, now with Ford duratec power under the bonnet.
The action would kick off on the Friday night with two runs over the ever popular Aberystwyth followed by a run over Elerch and Blaenmelindwr. The street stages once again saw a huge crowd had gathered, and a carnival like atmosphere spread through the town, the crowds of spectators no doubt providing an excellent boost for the town’s economy. The layout of the stage would be similar to last years with the stage beginning with a figure of eight loop around some barrels before heading around the castle on the seafront to the stage finish. The international rally would be up first and Meirion and Dale would begin their event with the ninth quickest time on the opening run with 1 minute 11.2 seconds, they would again be ninth on the second running, improving on their first run with a time of 1 minute 10.5 seconds, they would hold ninth overall after the street stages. Over the next stages they would continue to set some great times and ended the day in ninth overall, despite an issue with a pop off valve which cost them a little momentum.
It was then the turn of the historics. Sadly it would be a very short rally for Tomas and Shane as the car would break on the first run through the stage, meaning a premature end to their event, a great shame as they would have definitely been contenders for a very strong result. The rally got off to a better start for the rest of the club members, with Dyfrig and Trystan setting the third quickest time with 1 minute 23.9 seconds. They would be fifth quickest on the second run with a time of 1 minute 23.2 seconds, they would be third overall. Andy and Owain also got off to an excellent start. They would be fourth quickest on both of the opening stages, with 1 minute 25 seconds being their time on the opening run, they followed this up with 1 minute 23 seconds on the second run, this would see them fourth overall. Arwel and Jordan also did very well on the opening runs. They would be seventh quickest on the opening run with 1 minute 30 seconds, and they would follow this up with 1 minute 25.9 seconds on the second run, which again was seventh quickest. They would hold seventh overall. Leaving the town and going into Elerch and Blaenmelindwr our club members would continue to do very well, with Dyfrig and Trystan managing an overall quickest time at Blaenmelindwr, excellent going by them. Andy and Arwel were also going well, both featuring in the top five.
Then came the nationals. It would be Dylan and Mark that set the pace with the quickest time, stopping the clocks on 1 minute 17.2 seconds. They would follow up with the third quickest time on the second pass with 1 minute 15.5 seconds, ending their evening in second overall. Rhys Wyn and Gerwyn would be next with 1 minute 19.2 seconds on the opening run which would see them in fourth, they would follow this up with the fifth quickest time on the second running with 1 minute 16.9 seconds, they would end their day fifth. Ieuan and Gareth followed them with the tenth quickest time on 1 minute 21.1 seconds, sadly they would retire after the second running of the stage with engine issues, they would manage to limp to the end of the stage and set a time of 1 minute 20.5 seconds but they would go no further. Arwyn and Mathew would manage the fourteenth quickest on their first run. Their time would be 1 minute 23.1 seconds. They would be eighteenth quickest on the second run with 1 minute 22.2 seconds, so their overall standing would be thirteenth place.
Dyfrig James and Trystan Bryn Evans finishing an excellent second overall on the Historic rally (Greg Harrand)
Gareth and Dafydd would be next in the Darrian. They would set a time of 1 minute 25.6 seconds which would see them twenty second. They would improve this on the second run, managing a time of 1 minute 21 seconds. Gethin and Llyr would manage 1 minute 26.9 seconds on their opening run in their escort, they would follow up with a 1 minute 25.1 seconds pass on the second run. Alan and Rhys managed 1 minute 27.4 seconds the first time around in their Darrian, and then 1 minute 26.3 seconds on the following run. Hywel and Dorian would start their event with a time of 1 minute 28.7 seconds, followed by 1 minute 28.5 seconds on the second loop. Jonathan and Owen would have 1 minute 30.9 seconds, followed by 1 minute 24.7 seconds on the second run, a big improvement there. Jac and Marc managed 1 minute 37.5 on the first running of the stage, and 1 minute 33.4 seconds on the second. It would be an eventful evening following on from the street stages, as for Dylan and Mark they would set the quickest national time over Elerch, but would only manage the twenty-fourth quickest time over Blaenmelindwr, so they would drop to sixth in the overall standings. Rhys Wyn and Gerwyn would match Dylan’s time on stage 4 so would end their day in fifth overall. Gareth and Dafydd climbed into the top ten by the end of the first day after some excellent stage times, a good opening day for them. Arwyn and Mathew were comfortably in the top 20 after the opening stages, no doubt the crews road rallying experience helping on the night stages. Gethin and Llyr found themselves just outside of the top twenty in twenty third place. Jonathan and Owen finished their first day in thirty fourth, and Hywel and Dorian ended their first day in forty second. Alan and Rhys dropped down the order a little over stage 4 so they ended their first day in forty fifth overall. Jac and Marc had an excellent run over the evening stages, and would climb twelve places in two stages to end the evening in sixty sixth, great going for them!
Saturday would be non stop action, with a pair of stages through Aberffrwd, Soar Y Mynnydd and Cwm Elan as well as two more passes over the street stage. Aberffrwd would be first up, and Meirion and Dale would be seventh quickest through it in the international event, bumping them up two places in the leaderboard. The first pass over Soar Y Mynnydd was due to be stage 6 but had to be canceled due to a technical issue so it would be over to Cwm Elan for stage 7. This stage would start by the Craig Coch reservoir and finish just before the village of Cwmystwyth. It would be a very quick stage with accurate pacenotes being crucial to a good time. Here again Meirion and Dale would be seventh quickest, retaining their seventh place position in the overall standing.
There would then be a second loop of the stages, with Soar Y Mynnydd now running smoothly. Meirion and Dale would be eighth quickest through the second running of Aberffrwd after getting the harpin in the stage a little wrong, even so they set a very respectable time of 6 minutes 24.4 seconds. The Soar Y Mynnydd stage would take place on the Abergwesyn pass, a road well known among the road rallying community, used many a time in the motoring news championship days. From there they would turn right towards the Llyn Brianne reservoir before rejoining the pass just outside the village of Abergwesyn. Meirion and Dale would be eighth quickest over it, averaging 115 kilometres per hour in the process. Their time of 10 minutes 49.4 seconds would see them in eighth overall.
They would pass through Cwm Elan 2 without any issue and then it was back to the street stage for another couple of passes. On the first go through they would be tenth quickest at 1 minute 10.1 seconds, and eighth on the second run through with 1 minute 9.8 seconds. They would go into the final day in eighth overall.
There would be some excellent times in the historic event from club members, with Dyfrig and Trystan being second quickest over the first pass of Aberffrwd, their time of 7 minutes 13.9 seconds keeping them in second overall. Andy and Owain were’st far behind with the fourth quickest time over the stage with 7 minutes 26.5 seconds, and Arwel and Jordan would be sixth quickest over it on 7 minutes 47.9 seconds.
Cwm Elan would be next for the historics, and here it would be Andy and Owain that would do best among the club members with the third quickest time over it, with Dyfrig and Trystan and Arwel and Jordan being joint fourth and sixth quickest respectively.
Dyfrig and Trystan would once again be the second quickest on the second run over Aberffrwd, knocking some three seconds off their previous time. Andy and Owain would be fifth quickest on the second pass through, and Arwel and Jordan would follow as sixth quickest. They would be equally as impressive through Soar Y Mynnydd and the second running of Cwm Elan. Back at Aberystwyth for the street stage Dyfrig and Trystan would go one better and set the quickest overall time on the first pass of the street stage, they would follow it up with another second quickest time. They would end their day in second overall, less than 13 seconds behind the event leaders.
Andy and Owain would also do well over the street stages, they ended their day in third overall, albeit 1 minute 49 seconds down on Dyrig and Trystan, but there would be many miles to go and anything can happen in the sport of rallying. Arwel and Jordan would climb up to fifth at the end of the day after setting top ten times all day.
In the national event there would be a real battle for the lead, a battle which many club members were involved with. There would be less than 10 seconds separating the front runners, with Rhys Wyn and Gerwyn being second quickest, followed by Dylan and Mark and then Gareth and Dafydd who were fourth quickest. Arwyn and Mathew would be next as they tied for twenty third quickest, and then it would be Alan and Rhys who were thirty third quickest, they would be a couple of positions ahead of Gethin and Llyr who were thirty fifth quickest. Jonathan and Owen made it into the top 40 with thirty eighth quickest, and Hywel and Dorian would be forty sixth quickest over this stage. Jac and Marc had a good run over it so would be forty eighth, a great improvement over their seeding.
Rhys Wyn and Gerwyn would leap into the overall lead over Cwm Elan as they would go 9 seconds quicker than anyone else through it. Jac and Marc were also on the climb, as they gained another eleven places over this stage, catapulting themselves into the top fifty into forty sixth.
Rhys Wyn and Gerwyn would begin to build up a lead over the second loop of Aberffrwd as they pulled another 10 seconds out of everyone. It would remain very close between Dylan and Mark and Gareth and Dafydd as they would again be third and fourth quickest. In road rally class Arwyn and Mathew were also beginning to build up a lead, after the second running through Aberffrwd they would have a class lead of over thirty seconds, and they stood in fourteenth overall.
Rhys Wyn and Gerwyn would continue to build up on their lead over Soar Y Mynydd, pulling out another 8 seconds over everyone. Gareth and Dafydd swapped with Dylan and Mark with Gareth and Dafydd third quickest, Sadly this battle would come to an end on the next stage, as they would suffer mechanical issues on Cwm Elan 2. They would manage to complete the stage, but their rally would go no further, a great shame as they were well in contention for a podium placing. Gethin and Llyr would be up to twenty third placing, and Jonathan and Owen would break into the top thirty and now lay in twenty eighth. Hywel and Dorian were also on the climb and now up to thirty second, and Alan and Rhys would remain in thirty seventh.
Two passes over the street stage would finish the day off. Rhys Wyn and Gerwyn would be third quickest over the first pass with a time of 1 minute 16.7 seconds. Dylan and Mark would be fifth with 1 minute 18.1 seconds, and Gething and Lyr would be thirtieth with 1 minute 25.7 seconds. Arwyn and Mathew would be thirty sixth with 1 minute 28.3 seconds. Hywel and Dorian would be half a second down on them at 1 minute 12.8 seconds, which would see them thirty ninth. Alan and Rhys would manage 1 minute 32.4 seconds so would be fifty fourth. Sadly we would lose Jonathan and Owen on this stage as they would break their Peugeots driveshaft on this stage. Everyone would manage to pass through the second time without difficulty, ending what had been a full on but very enjoyable day.
There would be four stages to complete on Sunday, with two passes over the Gorsgoch stage, and two passes over the Tyglyn stage. Gorsgoch would be up first, and this stage would begin just outside of Neuadd Lwyd, before going through Mydroilyn, and then through Gorsgoch to finish just outside of Llanwnnen, all roads well known by the road rallying community. The Tyglyn stage followed, another one using many classic lanes. The stage would begin on the outskirts of Trefilan, and head up the B4377 briefly before turning off and using the lane to get to Cilcennin. From there the stage would run down to the Tyglyn mansion to the stage end.
Meirion Evans and Dale Furniss achieved an excellent result in the international event (Aneurin James)
In the international event the first running of Gorsgoch would be cut short as a competitor would go off and block the stage, which would see all of the field receive notional times. For the Tyglyn stage Meirion and Dale would set the second quickest overall time, stopping the clocks on an impressive 6 minutes 10.5 seconds, Meirion would describe the stage as “tricky but enjoyable at the same time”. They now lay in fifth overall. On the second running of Gorsgoch they would once again be second quickest, managing a time only 1.1 seconds down on the overall fastest time with 10 minutes 38.2 seconds. The Tyglyn stage would be the final stage of the event, and Meirion and Dale would be sixth quickest through it. The British championship was a double scoring event over the rally, with Friday and Saturday’s stages making up one round, and Sunday’s stages making another, Meirion and Dale would in fact win the Sunday round, a great result for them. Meiron summarised his event with “Today has been brilliant, swapping times with Suninen and Meeke. Maybe I’m biased but these stages are the best in the world”.
The historic event would only do one pass over the Gorsgoch stage, but would do two passes of the Tyglyn stage. There would be a fierce battle right to the end of the historic event with Dyfrig and Trystan right in the middle of it. They would set the fastest overall time on the opening stage, as well as on the Tyglyn stage. They would be second quickest on the second Tyglyn stage, which unfortunately wouldn’t be enough to take the win, but they would still finish the event in an excellent second overall. A great achievement for them both, especially considering it was Trystan’s first stage rally! There can be no doubt a long successful career is on the horizon for him.
Both Andy and Owain and Arwel and Jordan would have great results too. They would swap times throughout the day, consistently being third or fourth quickest on the day’s stages. Come the end of the event it would be Andy and Owain that would do best as they ended their event finishing in third overall, with Arwel and Jordan ending their event in fifth. It had been a very successful weekend for the historic club entrants.
In the national event the club members would continue to set impressive times and there would be some great battles throughout the final day. Rhys Wyn and Gerwyn continued setting the pace in the Darrian, adding 18 seconds to their lead over the first Gorsgoch stage alone. They would add another 10 seconds onto that on the Tyglyn stage. Dylan and Mark would once again feature in the podium placing over the mornings stages, they would find themselves second overall after the Tyglyn stage. Unfortunately the Tyglyn stage was cut short for many, as a competitor would go off on the stage, the remaining crews would be given a notional time over it.
Gethin and Llyr were really building momentum on the Sunday’s stages, they would feature in the top ten on Gorsgoch, which would see them climb up to fifteenth after the morning loop. Arwyn and Mathew were in a league of their own in the road rally class. By the end of the Tyglyn stage their class lead stood at just under 2 minutes, and they would lay in ninth overall. Alan and Rhys had a great run over Gorsgoch, climbing into the top twenty in nineteenth overall. Hywel and Dorian were still going strong in their escort, they would be twenty sixth quickest on the Gorsgoch stage. Jac and Marc would sadly not get a chance to run as they would be affected by another stage blockage so received a notional time.
Dylan and Mark would be the quickest overall on the second Gorsgoch stage, but only by 0.6 seconds, with Rhys Wyn and Gerwyn being hot on their heels. Arwyn and Mathew would again set a very impressive time and would see themselves ninth quickest. Jac and Marc would manage thirtieth overall on it, great going by them.
On the final stage of the event it was still very close at the front, with Dylan and Mark just edging in front of Rhys Wyn and Gerwyn with Dylan and Mark managing 6 minutes and 25.4 seconds, and Rhys Wyn and Gerwyn managing 6 minutes 34.5 seconds. Arwyn and MAthew would again manage a top ten time with ninth quickest, they would stop the clocks on 6 minutes 57.4 seconds. Gethin and Llyr would be next in eleventh with 6 minutes 59.3 seconds in their escort, it had been a great event for them. Alan and Rhys would be sixteenth quickest on 7 minutes 8 seconds. Hywel and Dorian would be behind them in seventeenth with 7 minutes 12 seconds. Sadly we would lose another club crew with Jac and Marc’s sunbeam retiring with mechanical issues.
At the end of what had been an excellent rally it would be Rhys Wyn and Gerwyn that would claim victory in the national event. Their winning margin would be just shy of 2 minutes at 1 minute 58.8 seconds. Dylan and Mark would also make it onto the podium as they would finish in second overall, another great performance by a very consistent crew. Arwyn and Mathew would finish in a very respectable eighth overall, they would win their class in the process. Gethin and Llyr would end their event thirteenth overall, a great result for them, and Hywel and Dorian would make it round in a very respectable twenty second overall. Alan and Rhys would also finish in a very respectable position, ending their event in twenty fourth overall. Rhys Wyn summarised his event at the finish “This win means a lot to me, it’s my local rally and it’s an amazing feeling”.
It had been an incredible weekend that everyone involved should be very proud of what they had achieved, and no doubt everyone would be looking forward to next year's installment.
Thanks must go to Aneurin James for the use of his images in this report.