Grist Takes its Toll

The sixth scoring round of the West Wales Rally Spares Stage Masters Challenge, the Nicky Grist Stages was not an easy rally for any on our contenders. With temperatures over 30 degrees outside the cars it is hard to imagine what the crews were enduring in full race suits inside bakingly hot rally cars. The rally took in the usual special stages in the Builth Wells area beginning with the Monument stage on MOD property, Bowlsey (Crychan) on NRW property, Halfway which used land owned by MOD and NRW and finally Route 60 which is entirely on MOD property. Unfortunately due to a number of incidents 2 of the stages were effectively lost for all of our contenders with a loss of nearly 14 competitive miles, not ideal but the welfare of the crews involved in the incidents was paramount.

Of our crews, we lost two in the run up to the day as Nick Elliott and Dave Price went ‘all modern’ on us and wheeled out a Fiesta R5 for the day and Rudi Lancaster elected not to carry Challenge decals as he tried out a new car. So, in the D5 class it was Worcester farmer Rob Latham who took the top points with Mike Simpson and Ian Jones runners up. Charles Hopkinson and Alan Jones finished third, all three crews reporting very little in the way of problems all day apart from the searing heat.

Rob Latham kicks up the dust on the way to D5 spoils

In the C5 class Gary Smith was the hot favourite in his Ford Escort RS1600 but Dave Hopkins and Siobhan Pugh, in a similar car, stole a march on him on stage one with a time over 11 seconds faster. Unfortunately on stage 2 Siobhan became ill due to the effects of the heat and they had no choice but to pull out. This left Gary with a perfect chance to claim maximum points which he duly did. Jeremy Wells was looking good for second place points but clutch failure in the afternoon put paid to that.

A great class win in a lovely car for Gary Smith

Paul Holmes and Liz Beesley, our Challenge leaders, sailed through the event using their large amount of experience to get to the finish with no trouble at all. Unfortunately for Paul and Liz their race to the title is now handicapped as they are the only crew in their class which means reduced points. That said they are quite away ahead at the top of the points table so anyone else who thinks they may be in with a chance of the title will have to do some serious mathematics!

Paul Holmes and Liz Beesley continue to lead the Challenge

Ricky Evans did an excellent job in E4 and it is nice to see his well prepared Peugeot 205 GTi out on the stages. Jon Adams and James Wardle are having no luck at all and their 1600cc Ford Escort succumbed yet again. Bob Clarke and Jane Edgington were well up for a good run in their little Mini and managed 4 stages before Bob went down with heat exhaustion, hardly surprising in the circumstances and we wish both Bob and Siobhan a speedy recovery.

Ricky Evans pedalled the Peugeot well

Next up is the Woodpecker Stages, another forestry event based in Newtown, mid Wales and crews will surely be hoping for rain, something that ordinarily is in plentiful supply in Wales!