Brecon Motor Club News

This years Gremlin Rally was a somewhat fraught affair as Denis struggled with less helpers than usual, 2011 looks as if it might be a different kettle of fish as a number of members have expressed a desire to take it on.

On the night two BMC crews were looking for a glorious night, Mike Jones & Robin Moses scented a podium place and had their Peugeot right up there in fourth at the Llandovery petrol halt. Unfortunately Robin gave Mike a sniff of something else later in the rally, the resultant stop dropping them to eleventh place at the finish. Phil Jones & Ian Jury gave their Nissan Micra an airing and came in a respectable second in the novice class.

SARA'S SUNSEEKER

Sunday, 28 February 2010

Sara Williams' ANCRO attack started badly on Saturday on the Sunseeker Rally when her Subaru lost all drive once again. Before this however Sara and Dai Roberts had hauled themselves well into the top twenty despite problems from the start with the centre differential. A decision will be made now as to whether to go to the Pirelli Rally in Cumbria. The event would give good experience and possibly line up another assault on the ANCRO series. With the following 3 events relatively local it would be good to take the gamble.

Despite coming home empty handed from Poole, Sara was a winner at the Brecon Motor Club annual awards dinner and will receive a cheque and an award for her efforts in 2009.

DINNER 2010

The Brecon Motor Club annual dinner went off very well again in 2010 and with Tony Mason telling some really good tales from the past, making it an enjoyable evening. The Usk Inn catered very well for the numbers and the food was very good. Award winners on the night were: Best Driver - Sara Williams. Second Driver - Will Arrowsmith. Third Driver - Mike Jones. Best Co-Driver - Jamie Vaughan. Second Co-Driver - Stuart Cardell. Third Co-Driver - Robin Moses. Best Marshal - Jamie Vaughan Runner Up - Nigel Chappelle. The Autosolo Championship was won by Phil Jones and class winners were, Mark Bufton, Iuean Roberts and Mark Hatton.

WYEDEAN 2010

Sunday, 14 February 2010

A number of BMC members made an appearance on this years Wyedean Rally, a rare occurrence as club members are more tar orientated but good to see. Sara Williams was out for a warm up before the Sunseeker which is part of the ANCRO series that she will be contesting this year and was up to 14th overall when the diff gave up the ghost in stage 4, Chepstow Park. With new co-driver, Dai Roberts form Carmarthen, they were not too many seconds off the top ten as well.

Martin Jones took a last minute ride with Sean Edwards in a very nice Mk2 1600 BDA Escort and duly finished a good second in the class. Wayne Palmer made his first forest foray with Martin Leonard in the Peugeot 106 Cup car but it refused to pull cleanly all day and was prone to cutting out for no reason. Eventually it refused to start at Speech House and that was the sports over. Rob Jenkins chose the Wyedean as his very first rally ever and finished, ably assisted by Epynt MC member Cliff Jones

in his 1600cc Peugeot 205 GTI. They managed to get through scrutineering after a couple of minor problems and despite a cracked exhaust manifold early on they enjoyed their day and Rob probably learnt lots!

PEMBREY PANDEMONIUM

Wednesday, 30 December 2009

Left, Jamie Vaughan enjoying his first RWD experience!

A variety of club members had a go at Carmarthen Motor Clubs WWRS Christmas Stages but few returned home with that warm glowing feeling!

The only club member to uphold the honour was Will Arrowsmith who finished a tremendous 12th overall.

Craig, left, ventilated the engine block........................

Disaster struck for everyone else, Mike Jones & Robin Moses broke the clutch on the 205, Mark Hatton &

Alan Hatton broke the diff

erential on the Clio which means more time off from the wife for Robin! Wayne Palmer and Stuart Richards ended up stuck in 2nd gear in the newly acquired Peugeot 106 and Craig Jones blew the motor up in his 205. Jamie Vaughan had a spin out in an Escort and they finished despite a few problems along the way.

Mark and Alan (left) in the flying Clio.

Mike and Robin heading for an early bath.

Will was the only one to find reliability this time.

Wayne, plenty of idea, no gear!

SEPTEMBER & OCTOBER HAPPENINGS

Sunday, 18 October 2009

Yet again apologies for the late news, the next twelve months is going to be a bit like this as another book project is going to take over! That being the case I would appreciate any news you have sending to me or any photos as well, I need the information to be able to write this up and it does take quite a bit of time.

Brecon Motor Club members have been very active over the last couple of months, Jason Pritchard has gone all international on us and after the Trackrod in Yorkshire where he finished 15th despite problems he went on to compete in Flanders, Le Touquet and right down in the South of France at Antibes. (Where he is as I write). Things have not swung Jason's way completely and Martin McCormack has had the edge but the experience gained competing against the foreign Citroen crews has been invaluable.

Sara Williams has had a good season but the last 2 events could have been better, the Subaru was not right for the Woodpecker but some fettling in between meant it was A1 for the Cambrian. The times reflected the improvement in the car but an excursion which lasted 5 minutes ruined a good result. Martin Jones partnered Sara on these 2 rallies and the pair have struck up a good working relationship. On the plus side Sara has won her class in the Welsh National Championship, is 1st under 25 in the national and the clubmans and also finished 4th in each series. Looks like it will be BTRDA for 2010, watch this space.

The Peter Lloyd Rallying Pembrey Stages is always popular with BMC crews and this year was no exception, Jonathon Williams and Wayne Palmer dusted the Honda Civic off and finished 12th overall, the loss of 2 gears losing them a top ten finish. Mike Jones and Robin Moses had a good day and finished a very good 24th overall, Robin tells me it could have been better as they were heavily baulked. Nevertheless a great result for the ever reliable Peugeot, a credit to Robin's prepping skills! He just needs to spend more time on Mark Hatton's Clio now as his bad luck continued with early head gasket failure. Also in the dumps were Phil Jones and Ian Jury who debuted the new Audi Quattro only for the engine to let loose in a big way. Jamie Vaughan was out co-driving but also took an early bath! Dai Block and Glyn Price are on the finishers list but there must have been a problem with the BMW as they are well down the order. James Chappelle and Lisa Price wheeled out the 205 Rallye for James' first stage event in some time and were award winners in 40th place.

The autosolo season has come to an end and Phil Jones has performed consistently all season to bring his Peugeot into the top spot. Well done and also well done to everyone else who has been out there this year. At the moment there are no concrete plans to run a series next year as the evenue is too expensive, Mark Bufton has approached the showground in Builth with a view to running some but organisers are needed to get them off the ground. If anyone has a good alternative then please have a go at organising.

NEWS UPDATE

Monday, 31 August 2009

A late. late news update, as you can imagine the last couple of months have been a whirl with the 2 hillclimbs and the Flatters to get organised. Thanks first to the sponsors of the events, Dennis Motorsport and SGC Printing. The hillclimbs both went without too many hitches but sadly the Harry Flatters Rally was marred by an extremely unfortunate accident which resulted in a fatality involving a spectator. The inquest is due to take place within the next couple of months.

As for competing members, there have been lots and I am bound to miss someone out! Championship contenders Jason Pritchard and Sara Williams have been busy respectively, Jason was fighting for the Citroen C2 Cup with Martin McCormack on the Manx and Ulster Rallies but a brush with an Irish bank handed the title to his rival. We will report on plans for next year when we have them. Sara has continued her march in the Welsh Championship and is currently 5th overall and 1st lady and 1st under 25 year old. There was a hiccup on the recent Neath Valley Stages when she rolled on the final stage. After complaining of handling difficulties at the previous stage finish where BMC were marshalling she went on to flip it over, luckily without too much damage.

The Epynt events have seen a host of BMC crews out with Iean Pritchard and Martin Jones retiring from a certain 3rd place on the Flatters in their Subaru. Will Arrowsmith and Craig Jones did well to get in the awards for the road rally class while Dai Block and Glyn Price suffered yet again with the BMW. Mike Jones and Robin Moses recorded another finish in their Peugeot while the similar car of Phil Jones and Ian Jury met with carb problems. The Mewla saw the usual suspects lurking and this time Dai & Glyn delivered with the Beemer with 2nd in the road rally class. Mike & Robin persevered to another finish while Wayne Palmer and Martin Jones debuted the latest Escort but succumbed to gearbox failure. It's also worth mentioning that Dai & Glyn did the Neath Valley Stages between the 2 Epynts!!

The club has also been busy marshalling, we did a finish on the Neath Valley, Gerry, Jamie and James got qiute wet and the two others had dry jobs in the cars!!! The Mewla saw us spectator marshalling, not a nice job but one that has to be done, the club responded well and there was a great turnout fuelled by a Nigel Chappelle BBQ!!!!

GREMLIN RALLY & AUTOSOLO

Tuesday, 9 June 2009

Left: Mark Bufton hauled in more points on the June autosolo.

The Gremlin Rally held on Saturday night took place in its usual wintery conditions.................despite being in June! Crews departed on a wet night from Brecon Leisure Centre and top seeds Peter Collins and Llinos Jones came through to win for the second year in their Astra with a clean sheet. Dave Harris and Mark Appleton finished second and first historic in their RS2000 with Alan Gaunt and Maichael Gilbey's Escort third.

BMC crews fared reasonably well, Will Arrowsmith and Ceri Jones were fourth overall, Mark Weller and Eric Tong twelfth in the rapidly rebuilt Golf and Phil Jones and Tim James Fourteenth in the 205. An interesting fact is that all these drivers were teamed up with Epynt Motor Club navigators promoting a good working relationship between clubs. Finally, Kevin Tweedy and Jamie Vaughan finished 23rd in Kev's Mini. It was a steep learning curve for young Jamie (!) but they persevered to record a finish but I get the feeling Jamie will be pursueing his co-driving career first!!

The autosolo was, as expected, down on numbers but 6 cars had a go. Wayne Palmer ran out winner after some dramas, firstly Wayne hit a cone bringing himself into line with Martin Leonard and Phil Jones but wrong tests by the both of them left the door wide open for Wayne to take the victory. Two new members from Blaina gamely had a go in their immaculate Fiesta's but a few wrong tests put paid to a good finish. Mark Bufton persevered in the underpowered Nova and took third place behing the Golf of Martin Leonard.

SEVERN VALLEY & WELSH MARCHES RALLY

Monday, 1 June 2009

Sara Williams and Martin Jones unsettled the dust on Saturday when they flew to 9th overall on the well subscribed Severn Valley Clubmans Rally. After retiring on the last round with gearbox failure Sara used a standard 'box but drove well and finished with good championship points to aid her bid for class victory.

Meanwhile on Sunday a plethora of BMC crews were out on the Welsh Marches Stages, a mini Epynt event organised by Hereford Motor Club. It was a good day overall, Jason Pritchard was very fast all day and was up there with the leaders but a broken driveshaft on the last stage ruined everything. He and Martin Jones just had to be thankful that it broke on Epynt and not on the next BRC round. Wayne Palmer finished 7th overall and 1st in class but another stint in safe mode meant a certain 4th overall was lost in the ex McRae Honda. Will Arrowsmith and Craig Jones went very well in the 4 door Escort and finished 13th overall and 1st in the road rally car class. Brian Dennis suffered on the long stages with age related problems but still won his class and finished 28th overall in his faithful Mini ABX. Mike Jones and Robin Moses came home in a respectable 32nd overall and beat their stablemates Dai 'Block' Jones and Glyn Price by one place. Stuart Cardell was out in the red Anglia with Peter Lewis and they trod carefully to record 43rd overall. Mark Hatton has no luck and water pump failure put them out on the first stage, I'm told they fixed the car and won the trophy rally, hope that's true!! Well done to all, a good all round performance.

MAY HILLCLIMB

Tuesday, 26 May 2009

Below: Peter Kukainis

The May Dennis Motorsport Epynt Hillclimb went off very well and a huge thanks must go to the members who worked very hard to make it so and to Brian Dennis for supporting it. The marshalling was outstanding and Bob Long, our chief marshal, deserves praise for that.

Left: Josh Burton.

Despite a small entry the weather helped to make the day and entertainment from Graham Hollis and Terry Brown maintained its usual standard in the clash of the Escorts. That's not to take anything away from FTD holder Peter Kukainis who drove his very special Westfield to a new hill record of 56.38 seconds. Icing on the cake was a couple of runs by Josh Burton in the Peugeot Cosworth (?) officiating by clearing the course of any errant sheep. Don't forget June, we'll need lots of help again, pray for good weather!