RALLYING akin to yesteryear returned to Brecon & Radnor last Friday when the Roger Albert Clark rally made its first foray into Wales.
Named after the British rally legend of the 1970’s who won the traditional RAC Rally on two occasions making him a household name in the process. Modern rallies have become short sprint events and usually feature a compact cloverleaf route returning to the host town or city at the end of the day to a central service park.
The forerunner to Wales Rally GB; the RAC Rally of Great Britain ran a loop around the UK taking in Wales, England and Scotland covering some fifteen hundred miles and up to 70 timed stages. Although much shorter than the original RAC rally the Roger Albert Clark rally has placed endurance as the principle element and this years rally featured Wales in its itinerary for the first time.
The event started in Brightwells of Leominster on Friday morning and some 95 crews from all corners of the UK and Europe started the four-day epic. The fist two stages were a short blast up and down the Shelsley Walsh Hill Climb course and immediately Jason Tauber Pritchard from Builth Wells made his intentions clear, heading the time sheets. Pritchard and co-driver Phil Clarke in the North Road Garage supported Escort RS where hoping to top a fine year, where they again took overall honours in the British Historic Rally Championship by adding victory on this prestigious rally to their list of accolades for the season.
As crews crossed the Welsh boarder into Radnor forest Pritchard slipped to second, passed by a flying Roger Chilman from Hereford who blasted through the Alan Jones Radnor 1 stage some 18 seconds faster - no doubt benefitting from a better starting order position on the treacherously slippery muddy surface? Gwebedog and Epynt near Tirabad featured next and Pritchard emerged from these stages having regained the lead.
Unfortunately Alan Jones Radnor 2 stage was cancelled due to safety concerns, so Pritchard entered the passage control in Crossgates Motors with a nine second advantage before returning to Leominster and the long run north to Carlisle for the start of leg two.
Kielder forest or killer Kielder as its “affectionately” known featured ten stages on day two - totalling some 96-stage miles. Pritchard having been re-seeded as the overnight leader had the daunting task of being first into the huge man made forest complex, which has a reputation of eating rallycars whole. Masterfully he commanded from the front and was either fastest or second on all the days’ stages and again went to sleep with an extended advantage of 49 second over Irishman and previous winner Martin McCormack also driving an Escort RS.
Day three featured stages in the border country as the event ventured into Scotland, temperatures dropped and frost and ice added to the slippery cocktail of road conditions.
Pritchard continued to lead and maintained the gap to the second placed driver until mechanical woes intervened on stage 21 Twiglees near Lockerbie when a half shaft failed near the start of the stage.
It was a bitter disappointment for the crew and the whole support team.
Having controlled the lead from the front it was a case of so near but so far - equally disappointed was McCormack who was relishing the battle with the young Welshman on the final day, but with a commanding lead over Matthew Robinson and Chilman cruised through the remaining stages on Monday taking his second win on the event.