Matthew Hirst won the Get Jerky Rally North Wales Saturday 16 March for a fourth time in a row, when he dominated the opening round of the Motorsport UK Pirelli Welsh Rally Championship in his Delta Salvage/Witham Motorsport Ford Fiesta R5.
Co-driven by Declan Dear, the Doncaster ace set the fastest time through the morning’s loop of four stages through Gartheiniog, Dyfi, Dyfnant West and Dyfnant East forests to reach mid-day service 1min 34sec ahead of his nearest rival.
He continued to push hard in the afternoon, and whilst heavy rain meant that he was slower over the repeat run of stages, the reigning champion was still considerably faster than everyone else – increasing his advantage to a magnificent 3min 05sec winning margin.
It was their biggest win on the event, setting the defending champions on course for what they hope will be a record-breaking fourth Pirelli Welsh title.
“Maybe from the outside this win might look easy, but it was far from it,” said Matthew.
“We decided right from the word go to push on and challenge ourselves and if we were leading to not back off and manage the gap in the afternoon – which might seem silly, but sometimes when you back off you lose concentration and make mistakes.
“I love rallying in Gartheiniog, Dyfi and Dyfnant as these are classic Welsh forest stages, and the weather made conditions all the trickier. It always seemed to rain harder once we’d left the start line, and in the last stage there were rivers running across the road – I had a bit of a moment when I aquaplaned, so that woke me up!
“Last but not least I’d like to thank the event organisers and the marshals who stood out in some pretty awful weather to make sure the event ran like clockwork.”
2024 Get Jerky Rally North Wales – top 10 Motorsport UK Pirelli Welsh Rally Championship finishers:
1. Matthew Hirst/Declan Dear (Ford Fiesta R5+)….47mins 05secs
2. Dan O’Brien/Mark Glennerster (Ford Fiesta RS WRC)….50mins 10secs
3. James Giddings/Aled Davies (Mitsubishi Evo 9)….50mins 29secs
4. Rudi Lancaster/Guy Weaver (Ford Escort Mk2)….51mins 23secs
5. Peter Baylis/Paul Godden (Mitsubishi Evo 9)….51mins 41secs
6. Ben Smith/Steven Smith (Ford Escort RS2000 Mk1)….51mins 45secs
7. Simon Rogers/Jack Bowen (Mitsubishi Evo6)….53mins 15secs
8. Wug Utting/Bob Stokoe (Subaru Impreza)….52mins 15secs
9. Chris Richmond Hand/Pete Phennah (Ford Escort Mk2)….53mins 27secs
10. Rob Dennis/Andrew Boswell (Ford Escort Mk2)….53mins 48secs
