Breaking News! Brecon Motor Club are to run events in Africa and California next year. We went for weeks without rain, as soon as the set up crew arrived on the Thursday before the rally it started to spit and drizzle and by the time of the recce heavy showers were falling and come the rally a deluge with high winds was upon us. As a result many foreign governments have been in touch impressed with our ability to attract rain to our events.
The rally itself was a great success again this year under the clerkship of Jason Murphy for the first time. As usual much work was done beforehand which always pays off on the day. That is not to say that there isn't room for improvement, there always is and there won't be any time to relax before planning begins once again. As ever we are extremely grateful to the championships, the Fuchs Oils BHRC, Fuchs Oils RAC Tarmac Championship, the JD Tyres Welsh Tarmac Championship, the Hirefit Epynt Challenge, the Dennis Motorsport WAMC Historic Championship and the JELF Mixed Surface Championship. Without them, the competitors that enter and the marshals who work so hard every time there would be no rally.
And so to the competition, the National A historic rally had a cracking entry and the wet weather provided shock waves in the morning as Nick Elliott emerged as overall leader of both events after two stages. Sadly retirement after stage three thwarted his challenge. Gareth James and Steffan Evans were class of the field for the rest of the day in their Escort RS1800 but were kept honest by Osian Pryce and Dale Furniss in their beautiful hired Escort. Neil Williams and Peter James took the last podium position in their similar car as they also claimed maximum BHRC points.
Category two was won by Simon Tysoe and Paul Morris in their Mk1 Escort RS1600 and Dessie Nutt was back with Geraldine McBride to win Category one in their Porsche 911.
Brecon members fared variously, Jason Pritchard was out in the glorious S2000 Fiesta and was hunting down second place when the differential gave up. Bob Gibbons and Jon Harris were hoping to end a non finishing streak but the oil filter on their Mk2 Cortina decided to undo and the engine lost its oil.
There were some good stories though as Malcolm Rich and Arwel Blainey drove the wheels off 'Bertie' the Anglia to win their class and take second in Category one. Mike Simpson and Dale Gibbons were flying too but gearbox failure slowed them before they could change it in service.
So another year is done but the work is not all over yet! We need to arrange a club night to de-staple the boards and stakes and put them into some sort of order. It never ends!
