Rising rally star Osian Pryce will swop steering wheel for microphone when he joins the Ralïo TV broadcast team for S4C’s biggest ever coverage of Wales Rally GB 4-7 October.
The 450th Ralio programme will see three stages broadcast live, a preview and nightly highlights package, and seven hours of rally coverage.
Ralïo will broadcast eight shows in five days, and it will be the first place that fans will be able to view the action from next month’s British round of the FIA World Rally Championship on free-to-view terrestrial television.
Produced by Tinopolis from its Llanelli centre base, the award-winning Welsh motorsports programme has been on television for 15 years, and this year’s Wales Rally GB will witness the broadcast of the 450th Ralïo programme.
Osian will team up with Gwyndaf Evans, father of Elfyn who won last year, as Ralïo’s roving rally experts, watching the action on the stages and reporting back during the five recorded highlights programmes, as well as adding driver analysis to the three live stage action broadcasts.
The commentary and interviewing line up also includes Rhys ap William, Howard Davies, Hana Medi and Emyr Penlan, who will also Produce the programmes, while Dafydd Rhys will return to Ralïo as 2018 WRGB Executive Producer.
A lot of eyes will be on reigning Wales Rally GB title holder 29-year-old Elfyn Evans, who last year stepped onto the top of the podium and became the first Welshman to win a WRC event, and who hopes to repeat his success next month but has been struggling with bad luck this season and is desperate to return to form in his home event with the M-Sport Ford Fiesta.
For the first time ever in mainland Britain, the spectacle of a world rally championship battle will be played out on closed sections of public roads in Llandudno.
The highlight of this year’s Wales Rally GB 4-7 October is sure be Sunday morning’s momentous Great Orme Llandudno Street Stage which will spill onto the town’s promenade and streets infront of spectators.
The ground-breaking speed test will start on the west side of the Great Orme and then enter Llandudno via North Parade. The route then sees the drivers blast up and down either side of Gloddaeth Street before a flying finish – quite literally as there’s a jump – on South Parade parallel to the Promenade where the winners’ podium will be positioned. | “We wanted to bring a slice of Monte Carlo to the coast of north Wales!” explains Ben Taylor, managing director of Wales Rally GB. “It’s going to be a spectacular event with a huge crowd, as admission is totally free.” |
With huge numbers expected to pack into the seaside town, a plan has been devised to build a safe race track. More than 2,500 metres of crowd fences are being installed along with more than a kilometre of steel, concrete and water-filled plastic barriers.
All roads lead to Wales for the double-header decider and after four days of competition, the 2018 Prestone MSA British Rally Championship will come to a conclusion.
Four out of the five titles are still to be decided and Wales Rally GB offers two-point scoring opportunities for this season’s dreams to be realised.
Matt Edwards, Steve Rokland, Jordan Reynolds and Spencer Wilkinson are all in the prime seats for becoming BRC champions but they have to ensure that they finish the event to secure the points needed. There is a fully interactive points table on the Prestone BRC website so that all permutations can be played with. You can download it here.