What a strange world this is, last year we had the best weather ever for the Flatters, this year it was a monsoon! The marshals were the heroes of the day standing out in persistent sideways Epynt rain, wetter than any normal type of rain. Saturday had been glorious but the Met Office had promised us a wet Sunday and duly delivered as the heavens opened at 6:30 in the morning. In the cold light of day the rally was very successful and the 5 stage format used this year proved to be extremely popular with competitors. Spectator numbers were down but with extra scrutiny from the MSA this was no bad thing.
The rally was once again two events, National A historic and National B modern but had to be seeded together in order of anticipated performance which made things more than a little interesting when it came to working out the order. Damian Cole was top seed in his new Ford Fiesta WRC with Jack Morton on the notes but intercom trouble foiled their attempt to be fastest on stage one, that honour going to Mark Jones and Terry Martin in their very well driven BMW starting as they meant to go on. Cole took the initiative thereafter but Jones kept the pressure on all day to finish an amazing second overall. BMC member Eian Pritchard belied his lack of seat time to record an excellent third overall in the North Road Garage Ford Focus WRC.
In the National A historic rally there was a lot of BMC interest locally and main contender for top honours was Jason Pritchard with Phil Clarke in their Ford Escort RS1800. They didn't disappoint either with a commanding victory over experienced campaigner Melvyn Evans in a similar car. Pritchard's victory now puts him at the top of the points table in the British Historic Rally Championship. In the B3 class keen rivals Bob Gibbons and Malcolm Rich were fired up for a good battle. Gibbons co-driven by son Dale in their Cortina and Rich co-driven by Jon Hawkins in their Anglia are fighting for class honours in the British historic Championship and it was Gibbons who put his experience to good use to pull out a decent lead. Rich was destined for second place but with just a mile to go he passed Gibbons parked up on the side of the road with a broken driveshaft and was gifted a category win and bagging a large number of championship points.
Brecon Motor Club members worked hard to pull the event together and will be looking for extra help to keep it going for 2016, keen helpers are hard to come by in the Brecon area so if you are a keen person come and give us a hand!
