The 2022 Gremlin Historic rally was the first running of this famous Motorsport News event in its alternative format organised by Brecon Motor Club. Based in the village of Three Cocks in South Wales, it attracted a bumper entry of 72 cars with what someone described as a ‘cracking top 20’. With the who’s who of current historic rallying supporting this fledgling event, it was difficult to predict who would come out on top after the 8 tests and 6 regularities that were laid on for us. 3.5 of the regularities were pre plotted with one being on tulips and 1.5 being plotted on the day, if not quite plot and bash. 

Starting from the fabulous host venue, the Old Railway Line Garden Centre, car 1, Willan and Frost, led the way to the first regularity of the day. A gentle drive round some narrow and pleasantly deserted roads woke the navigators up before heading to the first test to wake the drivers up. Once both crews were suitably paying attention, the organisers unleashed regularity 2 upon us all. A mammoth 32 mile long regularity going on and off Epynt using a tulip road book. Containing no less than 9 timing controls and 10 passage checks, it was relentless. Non stop dipping into hidden areas to find, or not in some cases, code boards and hidden marshals. It was 70 minutes of pure focus and concentration. Dropping only 15 seconds on this section were car 2, Crosby and Pullan.

Paul Crosby and Andy Pullan (Porsche 911) out on Epynt. 2nd Overall.  Photo by RallySport Media

If crews were hoping for some respite after this, they were out of luck because reg 2 ran straight into three tests with only 1.84 miles road mileage to rest. ‘Halfway’ ‘Quarry’ and ‘Artillery Range’ used a mix of forest, gravel and grass to really tests cars and crews. With a spattering of code boards to ensure everyone was paying attention, they too were relentless and as Les Andrew described ‘they took him right back to the old days’

The small matter of regularity three was all that stood between the tired crews and their lunch halt. Looking at the low total penalties, regularity 3 didn’t prove too onerous for most crews with car 14, Owens and Canavan keeping it clean and scoring a total of 0 over the 3 controls. 

The lunch halt was hosted in the local Toyota Garage car park and our picnics were kindly delivered through our windows as we checked into the MTC. Here Mark Goodwin had the bonnet of his TR7 up saying “It likes to go fast, it doesn’t like being stopped”

“It Likes to go fast, it doesn’t like being stopped”  Mark Goodwin and Anthony Davies (TR7) finally get a decent result. (18th Overall). Photo by RallySport Media

After lunch we all headed off again to enjoy test 1 ran backwards as test 5. Crosby and Pullan tied with Powley and Goff for fastest over the ‘Concrete Road’ on 2:27. At the end of test 5, the navigators were presented with the plotting for regularity 4, a mere 1.24 miles away. Most crews pulled over to plot it before returning the same location as RS2 to run over Epynt again. A few crews struggled here losing their place on the road. Perhaps the effort of such a tough event was starting to take its toll. Perhaps the sandwich at lunch had made everyone a little sleepy. If so, the organisers provided the perfect solution. 3 more thrilling tests over Epynt. Tests 6/7/8 were re-runs of the mornings but backwards. The crews were really enjoying these tests and getting the hang of the forest surface. This was demonstrated by Willan, Tuner and Valentine all beating the bogey on the final test. 

But it wasn’t over yet, crews still had 2 more challenging regularities to tackle. Regularity 5 was the reg of ‘Not as Map’ with 4 NAMs trying to catch crews out. But Crammond and Vokes took honours on this reg dropping only 12 seconds despite the organisers best efforts.

Having completed that mind bender, crews had 0.46 miles to compose themselves and double check their plotting before heading into the final regularity of the day. Reg 6 would offer 5 timing points and a code board to try to catch any crews out thinking they could relax and switch off. Brian Goff demonstrated his alertness by only losing 6 seconds over this final challenge of the day.

Crews were grateful to return back to the garden centre for a de-brief and a delicious carvery dinner. There was much chatter about what a great host the garden centre was, as well as the delicious food. Mick Valentine beamed when offered an unexpected pudding after his roast beef dinner. 

All of the crews were incredibly appreciative of the organising teams time and effort to put this inaugural event on which Niall Frost described as a ‘future classic’

Henry Carr, fresh from his success on the St Wilfred’s said ‘I’m definitely not 3rd today. Morning was ok, we made 2 errors in the afternoon. We went up the wrong forest track and met Owens coming other way. As the clubs 1st effort, they’ve got everything right’.

Charlotte Ryall in car 24 said ‘It was hard, but that’s probably how it should be. Intense but really good. Closest thing I’ll get to rallying back in the day’ 

Roger Bricknell described the event as ‘Very full on, I haven’t done any HRCR for 12 months and we certainly didn’t get a chance to enjoy the scenery although managed to pick some up on the tests’ 

Brian Goff reported ‘Our rally almost ended on reg 1, we sat for 4 mins waiting for an arctic stuck in the road.It was technically very hard, navigating was difficult’

Oli Waldock, a future star navigator was beaming when he said ‘That was too much fun’

Accepting his award for first overall, his 6th of the season with various navigators but today accompanied by Niall Frost, Dan Willan said ‘ That was tough challenging and unrelenting event. There was never a minutes peace, it was brilliant. Superb event, fantastic tests, Marshall’s on point, big round applause to Brecon MC. Thanks to Niall, I’d be totally lost without him’ 

The Test Pilot award, if there was one, would go to Dan Willan who enjoyed thrashing Simon Frost’s Volvo PV 544 for 28:38 around the cones.

The Clockwatchers award, again if there were such a thing, was taken by Matthew Vokes who controlled Ian Crammond and his Mercedes superbly to lose only 1:04 over 6 regularities with many of them using private land and all the tricks that affords. 

Congratulations to all the award winners, though just finishing such a tough event should be applauded. 

With many complimentary comments being made by drivers and navigators and the word ‘relentless’ being often used. It is safe to say the first outing of the Gremlin Rally as a historic daytime event was a success. Made so by the hard work of the organising team, marshals and host venues. It was great to see so many competitors remain to congratulate the award winners at the end, assisted no doubt by the warming Welsh sunshine. Many crews had long journeys home after with some not getting home until the wee hours. But all agreed it was worth the journey and look forward to a repeat event next year. Knowing that events like to improve and consistently offer a challenge, it’s currently hard to see how Brecon Motor club can better this next year. I’m sure many crews out this weekend will be present to bear witness and again talk of ‘Epic Epynt’ 

Lynsey Procter

Photos by Kind permission of RallySport Media