Matthew Hirst and Declan Dear wrapped up a stunning season by winning the Wyedean Stages Rally (8 November) to take maximum points in the Pirelli Motorsport UK Welsh Rally Championship and win the overall title for the fifth time.
This was an exemplary performance from Hirst and Dear, who know the tricky Forest of Dean stages well and they won from the front in their Delta Salvage/Witham Motorsport Skoda Fabia R5.
They were quickest by a significant margin on the opening Speech House stage and never looked back as they dominated the rally to win by 1m20s.
Even though they only contested four of the six PWRC rounds, four big results were enough to secure the championship over rival Liam Clark in his Ford Fiesta Rally2.
Third overall from the PWRC ranks was local hero Bob Morgan with Ade Williams alongside in their Winner Garage Skoda Cinderford Skoda Fabia R5 on stages Bob can almost see from his garage business.
Out of luck was longtime Welsh championship leaders James Giddings and Aled Davies, who went out with a broken gearbox on their Fordpad/Tandom/MetDem Mitsubishi Lancer E9.
Nik Elsmore and Pauline Nash, in a Skoda Fabia R5 hired for the event, suffered a broken wheel, which led to further suspension damage and retirement. Initially, Elsmore had been one of those leading the chase of the flying Hirst.
Among the two-litre Class W11 cars, Ford Escort Mk2 crew Geoff Phelps and Colin Jenkins (Cherry Rock Ltd/Dave Jenkins Motorsport) had a fine day even though on the last stage they lost second and third gears.
This cost as much as 30 seconds and dropped them down the overall order a position or two to tenth, but they were still clear of the rest to be the leading two-wheel-drive finishers from the Welsh championship ranks.
