BRC well represented in Wales Rally GB

RSL Staff

– November 9, 2011Posted in: BRC, British & Irish Rally, News

No less than 11 crews that have previously been registered for the MSA British Rally Championship and its supporting series the BRC Challenge will take part in this weekend’s final round of the World Rally Championship – the Wales Rally GB.

Champions to the cause
Three of the crews contesting the WRC finale are Champions from this year’s British Rally Championship: Jack Rowe and co-driver Alex Lee have entered the International event in the R2 Class Ford Fiesta that took them to victory in the BRC Challenge and Fiesta SportChallenge championships, whilst seeded one place behind them are BRC Challenge Ladies Champions Becky Kirvan and Karen Watts in their Fiesta ST. They are hoping that the sensible and consistent approach that took them to the runners up spot in their class in the BRC Challenge will serve them in good stead on this considerably longer event.

For both BRC Challenge crews this will be their debut on an international rally, whereas swapping from the international status of the British Rally Championship rounds to contest the Wales Rally GB’s national event will be Fiesta SportTrophy Champion and third-placed BRC Junior Osian Pryce. Partnered by co-driver Iestyn Williams, they start as the highest seeded front-wheel-drive crew in the R2 Fiesta that brought them their BRC success.

Playing at ‘home’, Pryce will only need to travel a few miles from where he lives in Powys to the event’s opening stage, Friday’s Dyfi West. And the young Welshman’s certainly got a busy week ahead, as straight after the Rally GB Pryce is off to compete for the BRC’s coveted Pirelli’s Star Driver prize.

Also taking on the world…
The highest seeded registered BRC drier in this year’s Rally GB is Jason Pritchard. The 23 year-old – also from Wales – was third in the 2010 British Rally Championship and, after a difficult start to this season, opted to contest selected IRC events in his Subaru Impreza with co-driver Dale Furniss.

Then follows a trio of R2 Fiestas occupied by BRC competitors, the first of which is 2011 Pirelli Star Driver and runner-up in the Championship Elfyn Evans, together with his regular co-driver Andrew Edwards. They are aiming to emulate their recent WRC outing, when they impressively won the two-wheel-drive category on the recent Rallye de France.

Father and son team Kit and Tim Leigh will run just ahead of John MacCrone and Stuart Louden, who have also had plenty of international rally experience this year. Bristolian Leigh took fifth in Fiesta SportTrophy, despite missing the opening round, while Scotsman MacCrone led several rounds of the series, but was unfortunate not to finish on each occasion.

BRC Challenge crew James Watts and George Morrison are another contesting the Rally GB national event and will be using their trusty Volkswagen Polo – the car that took them to a second-in-class finish this season.

BRC crews star in WRC academy
Proving that the British Rally Championship is the ideal proving ground for rising talent, there are three former BRC competitors who have been tackling the highly competitive, driver developing, WRC Academy this year and all will be taking part in the final round in Wales. The series has taken place on xx of the World Rally Championship rounds so far and, although following the same route as the WRC runners, stops short of the full mileage.

Alastair Fisher and Daniel Barritt head up the field of seventeen identical Fiestas, but it is Craig Breen and Gareth Roberts who could still take the WRC Academy title as they currently lie second in the points table. Even though Fisher won in France, it was not enough to enable him to challenge for the title this weekend.

2010 British Ladies Rally Champion Molly Taylor will have Seb Marshall to guide her through the Welsh forests and, although currently outside the top ten overall in the WRC Academy standings, Taylor hopes to continue the momentum of her excellent fifth place on the Rallye de France last month.

Starting from Llandudno, the Wales Rally GB gets underway on Thursday afternoon, with the action beginning with two runs on the winding asphalt road that encircles the Great Orme headland. The route then takes the world’s finest into the forests of North Wales on Friday, before heading to mid-Wales on Saturday and then South Wales on Sunday, with the finish taking place in Cardiff that afternoon.

The Rally GB national event starts on Friday and finishes on Saturday at the Royal Welsh Showground in Builth Wales (which also hosts a service halt for WRC event) and utilises some of the same forests that will be featured in the international rally.

For more information on the Dulux Trade MSA British Rally Championship visit www.rallybrc.co.uk