Jason Pritchard and Phil Clarke emerged victorious in their North Road Garage Ford Focus WRC last weekend, writes Mark Griffin.

The duo were top of the class during their run at the Epynt Motor Club’s Old Forge Garage Mewla Rally.

But it was far from easy for the Builth Wells driver as transmission failure towards the end of the final timed test caused time loss, and without any drive Pritchard and Clarke were forced to push the car for the last few hundred metres to the final time control.

With a straight forward format of ten short stages on the eastern side of Mynydd Epynt the event catered for the clubman competitor and it proved a recipe for success with a capacity of 80 cars lining up at the start.

Jason Pritchard was out for some “competition seat time” in preparation for next weekend’s Rali Ceredigion, the next round of the British Rally Championship. Although competing in a different car on the Mewla, Pritchard and co-driver Clarke could re-familiarise themselves with asphalt rallying after two previous events on gravel.

Damian Cole was also entered, partly as preparation for his assault on Rali Ceredigion, but to also to try and take the record for the most outright wins on the Mewla - currently tied with Epynt legend, the late John Price with six wins apiece. Cole, co-driven by his daughter Charly, was hoping to secure the outright record.

Last year’s winner Melvyn Evans and co-driver Dai Roberts were pre-event favorites and were competing in the “car of the moment”, the VW Polo GTI R5 but his challenge for the win faded early on.

Pritchard led the charge by securing the fastest time on the opening test some three seconds quicker than Darrian crew of Wayne and Gwynfor Jones, however Jones took the initiative on the next stage by stopping the clock five seconds faster than Pritchard who was experiencing some minor niggling problems with the Focus.

Evans and Roberts were struggling with fine-tuning the Polo to their liking and progress was further hindered by a poor tyre choice, the west Wales crew were sat behind the top three in fourth position. Jones continued to lead as crews approached the afternoon stages, however with just a handful of seconds separating the top three, all were in with a chance of securing the win.

Brecon Motor Club crew Josh Jones and Shaun Layland came to grief on the notorious “Black Hut” jump. Both crew members emerged unscathed, however the Peugeot was sadly the worse for wear and departed the scene on the back of a trailer.

Sam Davies and Lloyd William were again in fine form, pushing the nimble Nova to beyond its limits, setting impressive times securing a fine class award.

Christian Prynne wheeled out his new mount, in the shape of a Suzuki Ignis – the stunning-looking car was ideally suited to the technical stages and as the crew became more familiar with the cars behavior, the times improved throughout the day. However a mechanical breakage on the final stage caused retirement for him and co-driver Llinos Davies.

At the head of the field, Cole was gaining confidence with the Skoda R5 and had overhauled Jones in the Darrian.

As the final stage approached, Pritchard led but encountered transmission problems towards the very end of the stage. Cole set fastest time but it was Pritchard who secured the well deserved win.

The Mewla is always eagerly anticipated and hopefully Jason Pritchard will return next year to try and retain the winners’ trophy and equal family bragging rights with his father Eian, who has three Mewla wins to his name.