Welshman wins Bulldog Rally

In only his second event in a four-wheel drive car, Welshman Elfyn Evans took his maiden win on the Dulux Trade MSA British Rally Championship with a scintillating victory on the Bulldog International Rally of North Wales.

 

The 22 year old from Dolgellau along with fellow Welsh co driver Andrew Edwards brought his Pirelli-sponsored Subaru Impreza home 17.7 seconds ahead of Scots pairing David Bogie and Kevin Rae's Mitsubishi Lancer with Adam Gould and Sebastian Marshall surviving a late scare with a broken oil cooler to clinch third in their Subaru.

 

It was an event centred on Welshpool which provided a colourful ceremonial start on Friday and also hosted the headquarters and service park at the Welshpool Livestock Sales.

 

“It was a wonderful event for the town, and the area as a whole,” said Town Clerk Robert Robinson. “I am sure it will have made the sort of economic impact that we had hoped for.”

 

There was also local success for Welshpool driver James Watkins who won his class along with co-driver Siobhan Pugh in their Nissan Micra.

 

 

With overnight rain making the stages slippery, the first casualty of the event was local ace Tom Cave and co driver Craig Parry who slid off the road and into retirement on SS1 meaning he couldn't add to his runner-up placing in round one.

 

Bristolian Gould grabbed the early initiative and led for the first loop by 4.1 seconds ahead of Evans with Bogie a further ten seconds back in third. Evans took the lead on SS5 and held sway from there onwards as the battle raged behind between Gould and first round winner Bogie.

 

Into the final two stages and Evans held nearly half a minute advantage which he comfortably controlled as behind the drama was unfolding. TEG Sport team-mate Adam Gould slowed when he suffered the oil cooler problem which necessitated him to extinguish a small under-bonnet fire at the end of the stage but worse still was he had to drive steadily through the final test, dropping half a minute in the process.

 

Bogie's second place was his first defeat in three rallies but means he still holds the championship lead going into the Pirelli International Rally later this month by just two points ahead of the resurgent Evans with Gould well placed in third to tackle the daunting Kielder Forest which awaits crews on April 30.

 

As darkness fell at the Welshpool finish ramp, Evans said: "What a fantastic day! I'm surprised the win has come on only my second event and to have proven myself so soon is a bonus. It means a lot to win this rally and sets us up for a championship challenge this season."

 

Runner-up Bogie was gracious in defeat: "Elfyn drove really well today and the best result I could have hoped for was second place. I always knew it was going to be tough and I'm happy enough with second place and to maintain my lead in the championship."

 

For Gould, who crawled over the finish ramp with his stricken car, he was left to reflect on what might have been: "After leading the rally, third place isn't what I wanted but I was lucky to get to the finish. It wasn't our day today but two strong finishes in the opening two events is small consolation, I need a win to challenge Elfyn and David."

 

There was an intense battle in the Dulux Trade MSA British Formula Two Championship which eventually went the way of Mark Donnelly and Barry McNulty who emerged victorious in their Renault Clio Maxi by 6.8 seconds over Martin McCormack and David Moynihan's Citroen DS3.

 

McCormack held sway for much of the day and got to within 0.2 of a second of Donnelly on the penultimate stage as they swapped places but couldn't quite reclaim the lead.

 

Third place and the class R2 victory went the way of Craig Breen and Gareth Roberts in their Ford Fiesta R2 but the series lead is maintained by Estonian student Siim Plangi who brought his and co driver Marek Sarapuu's Renault Twingo R2 home in fourth position.

 

In the Bulldog Challenge Rally, which comprised a qualifying round of the 2011 BRC Challenge, Matt Edwards and Sam Collis took a comprehensive start to finish victory in their MG ZR, winning in the end by over two minutes ahead of Phil Scholes and Bradley Johnson's Ford Fiesta and the similar car of Damien Smith and Ella Flynn in third.

 

In doing so, Edwards clinched class honours in RC2 with Scholes doing likewise in RC4 along with taking the victory in the Fiesta Sport Challenge 2011. Andrew Wheatley and co driver James Aldridge won class RC5 in their Ford Fiesta as Mark Turner and Sasha Heriot claimed the RC3 class in their Peugeot 106. John Hardman and Andy Marchback won the S1000 class (RC1) in their Nissan Micra.

 

In the Bulldog Historic Rally, which formed the second round of the Dunlop/WONAGO MSA British Historic Rally Championship, the class B4 Volvo PV544 of Ian Beveridge and Peter Joy inherited the Category 1 win after early pace setters Simon Wallis/Graham Wride rolled out of the lead in their Lotus Cortina and in Category 2, a day-long battle between the Ford Escort RS1600s of David Stokes/Guy Weaver and Belgians Stefaan Stouf/Joris Erard went the way of the British crew by an eventual 19.3 seconds.

 

However, there was drama for the overall victory and Category 3 when, after leading Julian Reynolds and Ian Oakey throughout the event, Nick Elliott and Chris Brooks showed as dropping around 40 seconds on the Llangywer stage meaning times had to be checked by the hardworking officials but in the end they ruled in favour of Elliott although Reynolds took the consolation of sharing the series lead with David Stokes. Will Onions and Dave Williams took third in their Ford Escort.

 

Bulldog National Rally honours went the way of Shaun Gardener and Ben Innes who brought their Mitsubishi Lancer home ahead of the Subaru Impreza of David Howells and Julian Wilkinson by just 2.6 seconds with Alex Allingham and Mark Glennerster taking third place and class N4 honours in their Subaru.

 

Class wins went the way of Boyd Kershaw/Bryan Hull (Ford Escort B11), David Poyser/John Orme (Honda Civic N3), Robert Wheeler/Chris Wheeler (VW Golf B10), Jochen Walther/Phil Clarke (Volvo 940 B12), Dave Lewis/Steve Southall (Ford Escort H2) and James Watkins/Siobhan Pugh (Nissan Micra B8).

 

Bulldog International Rally of North Wales Results

1 Elfyn Evans/Andrew Edwards, Subaru Impreza, 1:21:15.4
2 David Bogie/Kevin Rae, Mitsubishi Evo, 1:21:33.1
3 Adam Gould/Sebastian Marshall, Subaru Impreza, 1:21:59.6
4 Jonathan Greer/Dai Roberts, Skoda Fabia S2000, 1:22:20.1
5 Jason Tauber Pritchard/Robbie Durant, Subaru Impreza 1:22:29.9
6 Tom Clark/Alistair Wyllie, Subaru Impreza, 1:25:56.4
7 Mark Donnelly/Barry McNulty, Renault Clio Maxi, 1:26:25.3
8 Martin McCormack/David Moynihan/Citroen DS3, 1:26:32.1
9, Craig Breen/Gareth Roberts, Ford Fiesta R2, 1:27:53.1
10, Callum Black/Paul Wakely, Suzuki Swift S1600, 1:29:05.0