Leaping to victory! Another successful day for Malcolm "Tar" Jones and Rhys Jones on the Epynt ranges (Gez Wyn)

The fifth of May saw rallying return to the infamous Epynt ranges for the running of the Pitstop Garage Pengam Dixies Challenge rally, which consisted of ten stages, all of around 5 to 7 kilometres in length. Naturally being a very popular venue and rally a small handful of club members would feature on the entry list, the first of which being Malcolm “tar” Jones and Rhs Jones, who were seeded at car 1 after winning the event last year, they were hoping for a repeat performance in their Darrian T90 GTR. At number 7 was Stefan “DR” Davies and Dafydd Evans who reunited for the first time in over ten years, having previously competed on road rallies back when they both started their rallying careers, they would be out in Stefan’s Mk2 Ford escort. At number 41 was Kevin Davies in a Vauxhall corsa kit car. He would be partnered with Sion Rowlands for this event. Rounding off club members at 49 were Jonathan Davies and Owen Rowcliffe in Jonathan’s Peugeot 206 GTI. 

Everyone would get off to a great start, especially the Darrian of Malcolm and Rhys, who pushed hard and set the fastest time on the opening stage, giving them the rally lead. Also doing very well were Stefan and Dafydd with the fourth quickest time in their escort. Jonathan and Owen managed the twentieth overall quickest time in their Peugeot and Kevin and Sion would be joint twenty-fourth in their Vauxhall corsa. Sadly on the next stage Jonathan and Owen would retire with mechanical failure. Malcolm and Rhys kept their incredible pace up and added another 5 seconds to their lead on the second stage with another fastest time, Stefan and Dafydd would still hold fourth but their position was now shared with another competitor. Kevin and Sion would drop to twenty-sixth overall after setting the twenty-seventh fastest time on the second stage

Following a service halt the first two stages would then be repeated. It was very much a repeat performance for the Darrian pair, setting the fastest time once again on both stages, in the process extending their lead to 29 seconds. Stefan and Dafydd would hold fifth over the next two stages in their escort, and Kevin and Sion would drop a few places to thirty-second due to a late arrival penalty at a Time control. 

Having opened up a healthy lead Malcolm and Rhys were able to ease off the pace for the next pair of stages, pushing hard enough to maintain their position without taking any risks. Even so they would still be the quickest car on stage 5, and the fifth quickest on stage 6. Maintaining a 51 second lead after stage 6. Sadly stage five would be the last for Stefan and Dafydd, as they would go off on this stage, both crew members were completely fine and the car was fixable but they were unfortunately out, a great shame as they were setting excellent stage times. Stages 5 and 6 would then be repeated after a service halt, and again it was Malcolm and Rhys that set a pace no one could match, opening their lead to over a minute after setting another pair of fastest times. They would in fact set the best time on the ninth stage, and second fastest on the final stage, so it was of no surprise that they ended their day with another victory over the ranges. Taking the overall win by a minute and four seconds. A well deserved victory for them. Kevin and Sion would spend the last few stages climbing back up the leaderboard to finish in a very respectable twenty first overall, and second in their class.

Many thanks must go to Gez Wyn for the use of his image in this report.