The year has been very busy so far for Brecon Motor and its members, the Red Kite Rally kicked things off in February and the club marshalled the finish of the Crychan stage. Any chance of getting cold soon disappeared when Dai Block and Glyn parked their BMW in a ditch close them. The resultant effort meant plenty of excercise was had and mud was evenly distributed. Please send any laundry bills to Dai.
The historic section was competitive again and Jason Pritchard opened his account in search of a hatrick of championship wins with second place to a flying Nick Elliott, both in their familiar full house Escorts. Jason suffered a little from a first stage, first corner indiscretion which possibly knocked confidence and lost a handful of seconds.
New member Mike Simpson contested his first rally for 35 years with Dale Gibbons reading the notes and Dale must have wondered what he had let himself in for when they flew off on the same bend as Jason losing a lot of time and even more when they dicovered that a tyre had also punctured. After that warning things settled down and their pretty RS2000 was a model of reliability taking them to a finish with much needed experience in the bank.
Craig Jones didn't compete but the green machine was wheeled out as 0 car. Craig has attended the MSA Safety Car Team training and did a great job for the organisers. He was asked the Thursday before the event and had to change the clutch, change the manifold and swap the suspension to be ready!
The AGM came again and we are now in possession of shiny new chairman. Chris Phillips has stepped into the role and we look forward to getting the much vaunted gazebo! Reputations are now at stake. Seriously, the club needed a boost and Chris should be ideal with his no nonsense approach. There are a number of roles still available to be filled (including secretary) so don't be afraid to speak up if you would like to help.
The Gremlin rally was ressurected at the beginning of March and sincere thanks go to Craig Jones, James Chappelle and Wayne Arrowsmith for bringing it all together. It is a massive challenge to organise an event like that and doing a day job and raising children makes it even harder. On the night it went well with Will Arrowsmith and Ceri Davies taking their third consecutive victory.
Many thanks to Brian & Tim Dennis who supported the rally once again, it is much appreciated and one of rallyings longest running sponsorship agreements. Any proceeds from the rally will be donated to Usk House Hospice, a local charity which we are proud to assist.
Lastly, the club marshalled at the service area on the Tour of Epynt and Bob & Dale Gibbons entered in their lovely Escort Mk1. Bob seems to be getting to grips with it now and dallied around the top ten until a few small issues dropped him back slightly, a great effort nevertheless.
Craig Jones has been very proactive and bothered himself to get some photographs organised for the club news page. The end of the year saw Craig take the General Manager of the Griffin Inn Felinfach, Julie Bell, to the Christmas Stages at Pembrey where she was strapped into the familiar BMW in the name of charity. Both are involved in fund raising for a soft play park in Felinfach but I suspect only one of them really enjoyed the day!
Dry January was abandonded for the WAMC annual dinner and Craig was the recipient of two awards for his excellent efforts in 2016. Below he is seen enjoying the moment.
Additionally Craig will be clerking the Gremlin Rally again in March and is working hard to get the route and everything else in place at the moment.
Oh what a busy month! It all started with the Showground Stages organised by Hereford Motor Club at Builth Wells. Bob Gibbons elected to take partner Julie Lord for a day out in the Escort and took it easy having lots of fun along the way to take second in class. James & Lisa Chappelle were reserve entries for a long time but managed to get a run in their usual Mini. It was probably James and Lisa's best ever result as they beat an Impreza and Damian Cole! The club was also represented by David Thomas and Austin Brill who spent the day marshalling.
The same day and the same venue saw the Powys Lanes heading off into the night for some navigational testing. Mike Jones and Robin Moses are back in the lanes and they finished fail free in their early Impreza. Two other crews were out competing but with different fortunes, Oliver Alford and Martyn Bates were not too far behind Mike and Robin in their Toyota Starlet while Evan Shepherd and Ryan Griffiths would have had a decent result in their Impreza but for a single indiscretion with the paperwork resulting in a fail. Club members helping on the night included Mark Weller who drove the closing car and Martin Leonard who was a club steward.
The Wyedean saw a great cross sectional representation from the club. Craig Jones with the rallying doctor Mike Bartlett and Dai 'Block' Jones and Glyn Price wheeled out their respective Beemers and did battle. Both crews complained of grip problems but it was Craig who had the real problem as he completed stage three with a broken bottom arm. Once fixed however he was flying and finished 35th overall and third in class. Dai and Glyn finished 46th letting the young gun do his own thing! Jeff Jones and Graham Isaac had a good day in their Peugeot 306 and achieved a very reasonable finish with the equipment available to them. BMC were again marshalling and looked after the finish of stages 3 & 6. Nigel Chappelle, Martin Leonard, Chris Phillips, Gethin Phillips, David Thomas and David McIntyre enjoyed a very good day with a few peeling off to the Ship in Raglan for a couple of much needed pints on the way home!
October 23rd 2016
Brecon Motor Club members celebrated their British Historic Championship successes at the annual awards dinner at Steve Perez's Casa Hotel in Chesterfield last night. Pictured below from left to right are Bob Gibbons, Category one champion driver, Jason Pritchard overall championship winner, Dale Gibbons, Category One champion co-driver and Malcolm Rich second overall in the F2 class. There are no firm plans announced by any of them for next year but Jason is likely to look for a third championship win, Bob and Dale are moth balling the Cortina and tackling some tarmac events in their recently acquired Escort and Malcolm intends to do the same as they feel the forest events are getting to be too hard on the cars. Whatever they do, good luck from Brecon Motor Club!
Send a bid to Mark Weller for a pair of Wales Rally GB Guest Passes! To be drawn at the Nav Scatter in Llangorse on Wednesday 12th November.
