The Forest of Dean will host the final round of this year’s Motorsport UK Pirelli Welsh Rally Championship on Saturday 8 on the Wyedean Stages Rally and there could be a winner-takes-all battle for the overall title.
As the event marks 50 years of the rally organised by the Forest of Dean Motor Club, the notoriously tricky stages will welcome a capacity entry of cars, including around a third of the total entry from contenders in the Welsh championship.
From a base at Ross-on-Wye, the crews will tackle seven stages over roads that can be slippery and narrow in places and the final destiny of this year’s Welsh title will be decided by the time the crews return to Ross-on-Wye at around 4pm on Saturday.
To complicate the title permutations, leading contender Liam Clark in his Ford Fiesta Rally2 was still showing on the reserve list at the time of writing. However, if he can secure a place on the entry, Clark knows that he has to beat his arch rivals Matthew Hirst and Declan Dear in their Delta Salvage/Witham Motorsport Skoda Fabia R5 if he is to win the title.
Alternatively, if Hirst and Dear take maximum championship points on Saturday, they will win their fourth straight Pirelli Welsh championship title.
With the best four scores from six rounds Hirst and Dear have rocketed into contention over the second half of the season with maximum scores on the Nicky Grist and Cambrian rallies and points for second place to Clark on the Woodpecker Rally.
These are stages that Hirst knows well as he has won the last four editions of the rally. Conversely, if he makes it on to the start list, this will be Clark’s first time tackling these special stages.
Though they cannot now win the overall title, strong contenders for the final overall championship podium will be James Giddings and Aled Davies in their Fordpad/Tandom/MetDem Mitsubishi Lancer E9 after a fantastic season.
However, a dark horse for the event will be Nic Elsmore and Pauline Nash, who step up to a Skoda Fabia R5 for the first time. Elsmore has an impressive record on his local event and has won it twice in his Mitsubishi Lancer E9 so his pace in the R5 will be watched with great interest.
Other contenders in the class for Rally2 and R5 cars include the Skoda Fabia R5 of locals Bob Morgan/Adrian Williams (Winner Garage Skoda Cinderford) and the Citroen C3 Rally2 of Rob Morris/Paul Spooner (RMG Groundworks).
The Ignition Motorsport Ford Fiesta R5 of Colin Minton/Jordan Joines is another Class W14 entry and back after a recent sporting foray to Italy will be David Tomlin and Keith Ashley (Ford Fiesta R5).
