“After my 2019 British Rally Championship plans fell through a month before the opening round, I was left without a seat. The opening round was the Cambrian Rally in Llandudno, North Wales, which was also the opening round of the BTRDA (British National Championship of which I competed in last season). 10 days before the event, local businessman and BTRDA Championship headline sponsor, Baz Jordan of Jordan Road Surfacing, stepped in and said I could use one of his beautifully prepared historic Hillman Avenger rally cars, it’s not what I had planned but thought…hell why not, I saw it as a challenge, being a right-hand drive car and a rear wheel drive car after the left hand drive Fiesta R2 I drove last year.
With the opening round being part of the 2 biggest rally championships in the country, the British Rally Championship (BRC) and British National Rally Championship (BTRDA), Llandudno town centre atmosphere was electric with over 130 rally cars. Stages included some of those used on the Great British round of the world rally championship, Wales rally GB, so some challenging stages were ahead of us in the new car.
Despite some very slippy conditions in the morning, followed by a rutted road in the afternoon, the car ran faultlessly and me and co-driver Arwel Jenkins came away with first 2 wheel drive car, beating much more powerful millington & XE powered cars and modern R2 fwd cars, being presented with a special award for the rally for our hard charging effort! Also, finishing first historic rally car in the Historic Cup and first BTRDA Junior Driver, I was delighted with our achievement, it couldn’t have gone any better for our first event in the car! It is now part of our 2019 BTRDA campaign to aim to be the first historic car to win the overall 2 wheel drive/Silver Star championship. We finished a very credible 13th overall, against many 4 wheel drive World Rally cars, R5 cars, Evos, Subaru’s etc!
I would like to say a huge thank you to the 2300 Club John Easson Award, a prize that literally has kept me rallying this season (last year at Uni!) Also, I would like to say thanks to Baz Jordan, Jondel Race Engines, Beatson’s Building Supplies, Ex-Pressed Steel Panels, Kielder WT, Pirelli tyres and Jason Lepley Motorsport, all for making this possible. It is not the end of my modern rally career, just a blip in my circumstances which I hope to turn into a positive showing my pace in a variety of cars, LHD or RHD, FWD or RWD !
The next event is in 3 weeks at the Malcolm Wilson Rally in Carlisle.”
