Russ Thompson and Stephen and Link were the big winners when the Pirelli Motorsport UK Welsh Rally Championship continued after its summer break at last Saturday’s Britpart Woodpecker Stages.
Thompson and Link guided their GPM/PD Extinguishers-Ford Fiesta Proto to an impressive seventh overall in a top quality entry to be the first Welsh Championship contenders home and scoop maximum points in Class nine for the non-R5/Rally2 four-wheel-drive cars.
Expected pacesetters Matthew Hirst and Declan Dear (Delta Salvage/Witham Motorsport/Speedline Corse UK/Pirelli Skoda Fabia RS Rally2) were in trouble from the start when their power steering failed on the opening stage.
They struggled through the morning and dropped a lot of time, but with the problem resolved were right back on the pace through the afternoon stages to claw their way back up to ninth overall and second in the PWRC pack. Hirst and Dear also topped Class 10 for the R5 and Rally2 cars.
Behind Hirst in the class came Irish crew James Wilson and Paul Mulholland (Road Tankers Armagh/Rigual/Emco Wheaton/Pirelli-Skoda Fabia Rally2) who dropped a chunk of time when they slid off on the penultimate stage.
However, they still managed to complete the overall PWRC podium and take second in class ahead of Dan O’Brien/Michael Gilbey (M O’Brien Group-Ford Fiesta Rally2), Bob Morgan/Ade Williams (Winner Garage Skoda Cinderford-Skoda Fabia R5) and Colin Minton/Izzie Holman (Ignition Motorsport Rally Team-Ford Fiesta R5).
The Class 8 battle for the over 2000cc 2WD cars was between Boyd Kershaw/Keegan Rees (Flying Kiwi Rally Team-Ford Escort Mk2) and Mike Brown Jnr/Nikola Brown (LB Passive Fire Ltd/Mymidwife.uk BMW Compact) and it was Kershaw who emerged after a fighting afternoon performance in tough conditions to take maximum points.
However, Brown was relieved to even get through the rally after suffering a fuel pump failure at the very start of the day.
By the afternoon, it was all coming together better for the BMW driver, but the gap to Kershaw was just too much. Andrew Fox/Jaime-Lee Fox (Severnside Defibs and Training/Fitzgerald Plant Services-BMW 325) chased the battling duo but Colin Griffiths/Marc Morgan (Cefnsuran Farm Self Catering Holidays-BMW 135) retired in the first stage of the afternoon loop.
Class 7 for the 1600 to 2000cc cars was decimated by driveshaft failures for both Max Utting/Huw Mathias and Liam Griffiths/Dafydd Evans (Presteigne Tyre Services/KS Morgan/Monnow Marquees).
But there are no such dramas for Callum Griffiths/William Lewis (Presteigne Tyre Services/Square Meadow Ltd-Ford Fiesta ST), who took a clear class victory over Geoff Phelps/Colin Jenkins (Cherry Rock Ltd/Dave Jenkins Motorsport-Ford Escort Mk2), Tom Todd/Dan Morefield (Historic Motorsport-Ford Escort Mk1) and Simon Millington/Sam Kelter (Ford Escort Mk2).
For another victory in Class 6, for the up to 1600cc cars, Michael Jenkins/Jordan Joines (Ignition Motorsport-Ford Fiesta R2) had to battle major gearbox woes but managed to nurse the car home with a margin over Andrew Husselbee/Alex Lewis (Peugeot 306), Christopher Skinner/Mark Williams (Peugeot 205 GTi) and Jeffrey Jones/Graham Isaac (Peugeot 106GTi).
