MAY 2006

RED DRAGON RALLY

Alex Allingham

The 5th Round of the 2006 Silverstone Tyres BTRDA Championship took place in South Wales the weekend in gale force winds and intermittent heavy showers of rain.

The Red Dragon Rally was based at Swansea and competitors faced 45 miles of action in the surrounding Afan Argoed, Crynant and Margam forests.

The 140 plus competitors found the very first Special Stage of the day very slippery due to the heavy rain on the previous night and most started the day very cautiously, with Dave Weston and Aled Davies the eventual winners.

Ludlow Castle Motor Club member Neil Weaver was looking for his 5th consecutive win of the Championship to consolidate his claim for the Xspec 1400 title. Unfortunately the fuel pump of his Vauxhall Corsa failed on the third Stage of the day putting him out of the event, but Neil still leads this category of the Championship.

Other LCMC members fared a great deal better and the first Ludlow crew home were Shaun Gardener and Ben Innes in the TNT Tyres Mitsubishi Lancer EVO 5. In spite of a misfire before the rally started and a puncture later on in the day, Shaun and Ben finished 6th O/A. This result leaves Shaun 8th Gold Star Driver and Ben 6th Gold Star Co-Driver in the Championship.

Just over 30 seconds later fellow Club members, and last year’s Gold Star Champions, Roger Chilman and Andrew Sankey crossed the finish line in 9th position O/A in the Walters Group Mitsubishi Lancer EVO 6.
Roger now shares second place in the Championship with Hereford’s Damian Cole, with Andrew in second place as Championship Co-Driver.

The Ford Escort Cosworth of Simon Rogers finished 23rd O/A and Alex Allingham produced another fine performance in his Group N Subaru Impreza finishing 30th O/A.

Finishing just 26 seconds behind Alex was the young team of Henri Grehan and Chris Ridge in the 2-wheel drive Plas Lime Ford Escort RS, a remarkable achievement in conditions best suited to 4-wheel drive vehicles.

The last Ludlow Castle Motor Club member to finish was Gordon Davies in his Opel Manta in 36th position O/A. Gordon was surprised to have finished the event at all after the 2nd Stage where he had so many “near misses “ that he thought his rally would surely end early.

The next event in the Silverstone Tyres BTRDA Championship will be the Mansfield based Dukeries Rally in June.

Henri Grehan & Chris Ridge

Gordon Davies

REPORT by KEITH GLUYAS
PHOTOS by RALLY ACTION PHOTOGRAPHY

MATADOR TYRES WELSH RALLY

James Wozencroft

Nearly 90 cars took part in the recent Matador Tyres Welsh Rally over the Epynt tarmac military ranges near Sennybridge, Brecon.

The event consisted of 15 special stages with the first three totalling 40 miles taking place on the Saturday. Unfortunately the last stage on the Saturday had to be cancelled due to circumstances beyond the organisers’ control.

Those competitors who survived the Saturday faced another 12 shorter stages totalling 48 miles on the Sunday.

The Welsh Rally was actually 4 rallies in one with categories for Historic, Post-Historic, Classic and Modern cars, with Chris Griffiths and Arwel Jenkins winning the event outright in their Darrian GTR.

Two Ludlow Castle Motor Club members competed in the Modern category.

Chris Ridge, co-driving in a Vauxhall Corsa with Andy Gwynne, finished an excellent 5th position O/A despite being stuck in 4th gear for most of one of the Sunday stages, resulting in them losing 45 seconds.

James Wozencroft in his Vauxhall Nova lost a lot of time as he struggled with a puncture on the Sunday. In spite of this handicap James managed to finish 21st O/A.

Chris Ridge

REPORT by KEITH GLUYAS

PHOTOS by RALLY ACTION PHOTOGRAPHY