Meirion Evans scored a tremendous British Rally Championship win on the final day of the JDS Machinery Rali Ceredigion last weekend to climb to second in the points table, while Castrol MEM Rally Team stable-mate Osian Pryce also remains firmly in the title race after scoring second-place points on Leg 1.
Meirion, who lives just 30 miles away from the rally’s host town of Aberystwyth, made a good start on Friday night and quickly found a good rhythm in his Castrol Toyota GR Yaris Rally2. With the FIA European Rally Championship crews left to battle for the overall win, he and co-driver Dale Furniss focused solely on the BRC battle and secured third-place championship points at the end of Leg 1.
With the BRC points reset for Sunday’s fifth and penultimate round, the day became a flat-out sprint over four demanding stages.
Meirion was the fastest BRC contender over Sunday morning’s opening loop of two stages, building a 14.2sec lead at the halfway point. He was then 10.8secs quicker on the second pass through Gorsgoch than he had been in the morning, further extending his advantage. That allowed him to take a measured approach to the closing Ty Glyn stage and secure maximum BRC points for the second time in his career. Playing his BRC Joker, Meirion also collected five bonus points to move into second in the drivers’ standings.
While Meirion enjoyed a successful weekend, Osian’s Rali Ceredigion was one of mixed fortunes.
A puncture on the qualifying stage gave Osian an unfavourable road position for Leg 1 – but despite having to contend with mud and debris pulled onto the road by the cars ahead, he survived Friday night and increased his pace on Saturday to challenge for maximum BRC points.
The two-time Rali Ceredigion victor completed Leg 1’s 12 challenging stages sixth overall and, far more importantly, picked up second-place BRC points – missing out on the maximum score by less than five seconds.
Co-driven by James Morgan, Osian made a good start to Sunday’s penultimate round and was the second-fastest BRC contender on the opening stage, which also moved him up to fourth overall. Unfortunately, his strong run came to an end on SS14 when his Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 suffered a gearbox issue.
Meirion and Osian now head into a three-way BRC title decider against Max McRae, with only the Lewis & Hunter Contracting Cambrian Rally (25 October) remaining.
Meirion Evans said, “We’re very pleased with how Rali Ceredigion went, both in terms of our performance and the results. It’s great to get a BRC win, especially when we were playing the Joker, and take the title fight to the Cambrian once again.
“The weather changed, and we’d saved a bit of the tyre package thinking it was going to be warmer, so I was a bit disappointed to see the rain come in on Sunday. But it turned out to be okay, because our speed in the damp was really good and we were able to keep that speed going in the dry as well. It’s very difficult to judge the pace in those conditions, but we managed to balance it quite well and everything seemed to click.
“It was a shame to see Osian pull up because our splits were very close and we were having a good battle. It would have been nice to get another one-two for the team, but that’s the way it goes sometimes.”
Osian Pryce added, “We began on the back foot after qualifying and didn’t get the best start on Friday evening, but Saturday went okay to be fair. By the time the afternoon’s second loop of stages came around, we had sorted the car out and were on the pace. That was quite encouraging in many ways, but it was still a little disappointing to miss out on maximum BRC points by such a small margin on Saturday night.
“Everything was going well on Sunday. On the stage we stopped, we were strong on the splits. We just braked for a junction and went from fifth to fourth gear, and immediately the engine revved. I thought I’d missed a gear at first, but we’d lost all drive and came to a stop. It looks like it might be the input shaft in the gearbox.
“Having built up a healthy championship lead before Rali Ceredigion, the pressure’s back on now. But it’s good for the championship that there are three drivers fighting for the title on the last round of the series – so all we can do is bounce back and give it our best shot in a month’s time.”
