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Saturday the 20th of August saw a trio of club members venture down to Walter’s arena to compete on the Port Talbot motor club organised Red Dragon rally. First up at number 2 was Andy Davies with regular partner Max freeman, who were once again out in Andy’s Group N Subaru Impreza. Andy was using the event as a pre Woodpecker test after they had given the car a mid season rebuild. In car 24 was Dorian John Evans with David C Williams, once again out in Dorian’s Mk2 Ford Escort. Number 76 went to Dylan Davies, who had partnered up with Dale Bowen for this event, once again out in Dylan’s Subaru Impreza.

The event made up of 5 stages gave crews a total mileage of 35, all of which was to be made up in Walter’s arena, and with wet weather promised it was sure to give the crews a challenge. 

From the first stage onwards the conditions were challenging and slippers, with many crews describing the conditions as “tricky”, although this didn’t seem to slow down any of the club’s members are they all were placed comfortably in the top 10 at the end of the day and posted excellent times. On the first 2 stages Andy and Dylan swapped times, both of them featuring in the top three, with Dylan managing a time of 9minuets 19 seconds on the first stage, and 5minuets 55 seconds on the second. Andy, having had a slight off on the first stage in the slippery conditions, still managed 9minuets 30 seconds, managed to to claw back a little on the second with 5minuets 52 seconds on the second. Dorian John Evans managed a very respectable 10minuets 28 seconds on the first and 6minutes 30 seconds on the second, putting him comfortably in the top ten at seventh.

Stages 3 and four once again saw Dylan and Andy swap times in what became an excellent battle between the two Subaru drivers, as on stage three Andy managed 9minuets and 37 seconds whilst Dylan achieved 9minuets and 46 seconds, this saw the two swap places on the leader board, with Andy now lying second overall and Dylan right behind in third. Stage 4 showed just how similar and competitive both Subaru drivers were, with only one second separating the two, this time Dylan coming out on top with a time of 5minuets 49 seconds to Andy’s 5miunets 50. Dorian John Evans was still going strong but dropped to thirteenth by the end of stage 4, achieving 11minuets 57 seconds on stage 3 and 6minuets and 16 seconds on stage 4.

The final stage of the day provided more excitement amongst the two Subaru drivers as Dylan made a final push to regain second place, a push which proved to be successful, as even after hitting a rock which pulled the tyre off the wheel with two miles of the stage left to run, Dylan managed a time of 15minuets 40 seconds, where Andy managed 15minuets 42 seconds, this gave Dylan and Dale second place overall behind the winners Martyn and Dawn England’s Fiesta R5, and only two seconds behind in third place were Andy and Max. Both drivers won their respective classes and showed excellent form in the difficult conditions. Dorian John Evans and David C Williams made an excellent push to see them once again break into the top 10, by posting an excellent 16minuets and 59 seconds saw them climb back well inside the top ten into sixth overall, and they also manged to win their class, making it a successful outing once again for the club’s members.

Many thanks to Mark Chappell of Gasmark Media for the use of the image.