Nearly 60 crews from the Pirelli Welsh Rally Championship will contest round three of the championship, the Nicky Grist Stages on Saturday, July 12.
The Nicky Grist Stages, which runs on classic special stages in the Epynt region of mid Wales from a base at Builth Wells, is the mid-point of this year’s Pirelli Welsh Rally Championship as it marks round three of six.
With close to 160 entries across the entire event, it is also a strong indicator that forest rallying in Wales is back to very good health after a delayed start to the year due to the damage caused by Storm Darragh.
The entry for the Welsh championship has quality to match the quantity and it is multiple champions Matthew Hirst and Declan Dear who head the front-runners in their Delta Salvage/Witham Motorsport Skoda Fabia R5.
Although this is the first time this season they have contested a round of the championship, they still have a chance of adding another title if they can score well across the four rounds still to run.
Fresh from victory in the Sweet Lamb Time Trial, Liam Clark will start the event aiming to seal his place as one of the winners of the M-Sport award for under-25 competitors in his Ford Fiesta Rally2 and will Clark be a prime challenger to Hirst for maximum PWRC points.
Leading the chase of Hirst and Clark will be three rapid Mitsubishi Lancer E9s for Russ Thompson/Stephen Link (GPM/PD Extinguishers), James Giddings/Aled Davies (Fordpad/Tandom/MetDem) and Peter Baylis/Paul Godden (Artificial Lawn Company) along with the Skoda Fabia R5 of Bob Morgan/Adrian Williams (Winner Garage Skoda Cinderford) and the Ford Fiesta R5 of David Tomlin/Keith Ashley (Axon Commercial Catering Equipment).
Making a welcome return to the championship will be Nik Elsmore and Ifan Devine in their CDS Taxis/Calico Interiors Evo 9 and making his second PWRC outing will be rallying newcomer Rob Morris with Rhys Griffin alongside in the RMG Groundworks Citroen C3 Rally2.
