Woodpecker Stages – Preview

After the summer break action in the West Wales Rally Spares Stage Masters Challenge kick off again with the Phil Price Memorial Woodpecker Stages which for the second year is based at Newtown with scrutineering taking place at the spacious Britpart premises. Some classic Welsh Stages are on offer including Hafren, Sweetlamb and Myherin.

Our hardy bunch of competitors will be in for some great action on great roads but after weeks and weeks of dry sunny weather it looks as if it might be a wet one with rain rolling in beforehand and currently forecast for the day itself.

Baz Wheeler and John Pickavance will be our leading crew in the Jondel Race Engines powered Escort RS1800 and will be looking to do Peter Jones of Jondel proud as he recently sadly passed away. Peter was a well liked and respected engineer who has produced winning engines for many cars for many years and his expertise will be sorely missed.

Guy Weaver will be a favourite for co-driver’s honours as he rides shotgun with unregistered Rudi Lancaster in his Escort RS1800. Mike Simpson and Dale Gibbons will be looking for a solid finish after non-finishing on the Nicky Grist Stages, their Escort RS1800 hopefully rebuilt and ready to go. The 2 litre pinto class is again the main focus of competition with Hywel Davies likely to be quickest but David Peters, this time with Stephen Spear on the notes, has shown consistency and has collected points steadily all season. Paul Holmes and Liz Beesley are a model of consistency and will undoubtedly be there at the end.

Ron Morgan is out in his D5 Escort and will be hoping for a better run than on the Grist when he retired on the first special stage. Jeremy Wells will campaign his lovely red class C5 Escort and will take a full bag of points if he can make it to the finish.