Brecon Motor Club News: 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.