Sunday the 17th of July saw an excellent turnout of Lampeter and district motor clubs head over to the Sweet Lamb rally complex to compete on the Aberystwyth Motor club organised Ystwyth Targa rally. A popular event that offered some 40 miles of competition in the Sweet lamb complex located on OS map 135. The club was well represented in every class and would include many crews that could potentially take overall victory, no doubt some good battles would take place throughout the day.
Heading the field off in car 1 was last year’s winner and BTRDA regular Andy Davies, with Max Freeman on the maps at his side, Andy this time out in the IDZ Subaru Impreza road rally car, they were a crew that had the potential to do well again this year with the benefit of additional traction thanks to four-wheel drive. Just behind at 2 Were Rhodri Evans with former event winner Cadog Davies doing the navigating in Rhodri’s ford escort MK2, another pairing that could do great things on the event and take the challenge to the impreza pair in front! At 4 were stage rally regulars Sean Crowley and Emma Jones, Sean returning to road rallies after some very good results on tarmac, and Emma Jones making her debut on a road/targa rally, no doubt a baptism of fire awaited her. In at 11 were the farther and son pairing of Edryd and Dafydd Evans in Edryd’s Honda Civic Type R, and right behind them at 12 were Mark Mayes, navigated by James Davies in another ford escort. Navigating in car 24 was Fiona Balchin for Chris Hill in a Peugeot 205 GTI. Another LDMC navigator at 39 was Tomos Evans navigating for Huw Evans in a BMW compact. 47 was taken by Arfon Jones with Kieran Price navigating in a Mk2 ford escort, and a few places lower at 53 were Mathew Price and Arwyn Jones, in an MG ZR, at 58 were Daniel Williams with John Gilbey navigating in a BMW 318 ti. 68 was Jonathon Davies navigating for Kevin Davies, and lastly rounding off Lampeter and district members at 69 were Owen McConochie and Paul Jenkins.
The first test of the day unfortunately saw the first casualty amongst club members as event favourite Andy Davies and Max Freeman broke one of the Subaru Impreza’s shafts, although they continued later on for practice and set fantastic times in doing so.
The rally was made up of four loops of tests, and at the end of the first loop it was clear that Rhodri Evans and Cadog Davies were on a mission as they held a fifty-one second lead, setting some fantastic times along the day’s opening tests. Other club members were also putting in fine performances with Mark Mayes lying in fifteenth, Arfon Jones and Kieran Price were thirty first, Tomos Evans guided Huw Evans around to thirty ninth. Owen McConochie and Paul Jenkins were in forty sixth, Daniel Williams was in forty fourth, and Fiona Balchin navigated Chris Hill into fiftieth. Mathew Price and Arwyn Jones held fifty eighth.
Unfortunately, the casualty list grew too with Sean Crowley and Emma Jones retired, cutting Emma’s debut event short. Also on the retirement sheet were the Edryd and Dafydd Evans, with the Civic developing electrical problems.
For Rhodri and Cadog the second loop of tests began as they ended the first, as they continued to set a blistering pace, extending their lead to a minute and forty-five seconds by the end of the second loop. Mark Mayes continued to improve on an already strong performance as he lay in eleventh overall after the second loop of tests. Arfon Jones and Kieran Price were twenty sixth, holding second in novice class and thirty first overall were Daniel Williams and John Gilbey, whilst third novice and thirty fifth overall were Kevin Davies and Jonathon Davies. Chris Hill and Fiona Balchin were at forty second and right behind in forty third were Owen McConochie and Paul Jenkins, but with two loops still remaining anything could happen.
For the third loop of tests Rhodri and Cadog continued their dominant performance to go on to increase their lead, which now stood and an impressive two minute and thirty-four seconds. As crews experienced difficulty and retired, the remaining club members found themselves climbing up the leader board, with only one loop remaining surviving the final few tests could insure club members some excellent results.
After a full day’s competition and with the final loop of tests complete the event winners were Rhodri Evans and Cadog Daives, Rhodri taking a well-deserved and long overdue win at the wheel of his ford escort MK2, with Cadog taking his second win of the event, winning by an impressive three minutes and twelve seconds. Mark Mayes and James Davies managed to continue to do well and finish an impressive ninth overall. Arfon Jones and Kieran Price managed a very respectable twenty second overall, Daniel Williams and John Gilbey went on to win novice class and finish twenty fourth overall. Chris Hill and Fiona Balchin went on to climb up to thirtieth overall, and Kevin Davies and Jonathon Davies managed fortieth. Owen McConochie and Paul Jenkins were forty fourth. Unfortunately, Huw Evans and Tomos Evans retired, as did Mathew Price and Arfon Jones.
The Ystwyth wasn’t the only event that saw action from club members, as John Lewis and Jason Thomas went out to compete on the Brawdy stages rally in John’s Darrian T9. The pair managed a fine performance on all of the day’s stages and finished an excellent fourth overall, and first in class.
With many thanks to James Hatfield for the use of his image in this report.