A fantastic entry has been assembled for round two of the 2015 Mintex MSA British Historic Rally Championship, the Viking Motorsport/Links Electrical Mid Wales Stages (Sunday 1 March).With at least 10 potential winners in an entry that is packed with quality and quantity, the BHRC will deliver a mighty spectacle on one of the most popular events on the calendar. The Newtown-based rally offers crews the chance to tackle superb stages in the Myherin and Hafren forest complexes, including the magnificent climb and later descent at Pikes Peak. Britain’s leading championship for historic cars has recently started a new five-year term under the management of the Roger Albert Clark Rally Motor Club.First on the road in the main historic field will be Nick Elliott and Dave Price (Ford Escort Mk2). They have dominated this rally in recent years with four wins out of five and they will surely set the benchmark again this year.Leading the chase of Elliott will be early championship leaders Jason Pritchard and Phil Clarke. Pritchard runs his Escort Mk2 in the Holton Homes Category K for cars running to Appendix K specification and as well as being the early BHRC leader he is also setting the pace in the Motorsport Auctions Welsh Challenge.Currently heading the RSR Historic Engineering Category 3 is the MSA British Historic Rally Championship of Richard Hill and Iwan Jones, who had a fine start to the season on the recent Red Kite Stages. Meanwhile, Matthew Robinson and Sam Collis had a fairly modest start to their BHRC campaign but will be out for a big result this weekend. Four very rapid Welsh Ford Escort crews pack out the rest of the top 10 and all of them are at least podium contenders: Meirion Evans/Steffan Evans, Tomas Davies/Eurig Davies, Terry Brown/Den Golding and Ben Llewellin/Ross Whittock show the depth of quality in the championship. Evans and Davies join Pritchard in running in Category K, as does the glorious Fiat 131 of Julian Reynolds. Meanwhile, historic newcomers Joe Price/Chris Brooks will make their BHRC debut and could be real dark horses. So, too, could Daniel ‘Lwni’ Jones and Gerwyn Barry after Jones was fastest of all on the first stage of the Red Kite.In the Category 3 classes there is a big battle shaping up in D3 as Ben Friend/Sean Kennedy take on Paul Barrett/Dai Roberts and Ian Jones/Iestyn Williams in a fight between the Pinto-powered Escort Mk2s. In class D2 for the 1600cc cars, Chris Skill/Colin Thompson will be setting the pace.The pacesetter in the Capital Construction Category 2 will once more be the Ford Escort Mk1 of Red Kite victors David Stokes and Guy Weaver. However, the strongest class C5 entry for a long time includes plenty of opposition for the reigning BHRC champion and the stage times on the Red Kite point to there being some great battles this season.Father and son crew Ernie and Will Graham, Rupert Lomax/Rich Jones, Chris Browne/Ali Cornwell-Browne and Warren Philliskirk/Nigel Hutchinson are all contenders, along with series newcomers John Perrott/Keaton Williams who showed great potential first time out on the Red Kite.Down among the Category 2 classes, there will be plenty more competition. The Escort Mk1s of Nick Danks/Martin Corbett, Simon Pickering/Colin Jenkins and Phil Jobson/Arwel Jenkins will contest class C3, but taking the challenge to the Escorts will be the rapid BMW 2002 of Terry Cree/Richard Shores, back out for the first time since an accident last summer. The class C2 1600cc crews run at the head of the rally with Dave Watkins/Tom Jordan aiming to make it two wins on the trot as Robin Shuttleworth/Ronnie Roughead chase hard in Escort Mk1s. Joining the contest are Barry Jordan and James Gratton-Smith in their rapid Hillman Avenger and Barry will be keen to finish ahead of his co-driving son Tom.In the Walker Diecastings Category 1, Porsche crew Rikki Proffitt and James Whitaker start as favourites after Proffitt took maximum points on the opening round. However, five crews are lining up to challenge them and fresh from a mighty performance on the Red Kite come Ian Beveridge/Paul Price (Volvo PV544). Malcolm Rich/Jonathan Hawkins (Ford Anglia) showed great pace on the Red Kite while the sideways Ford Cortina GT of Bob and Dale Gibbons will be right in the mix along with Dessie Nutt/Geraldine McBride (Porsche 911) and Paul Mankin/Desmond Bell (Lotus Cortina). Heading class B2 will be Mini Cooper pilot Philip Harris and Alan Walker, another crew to shine on the Red Kite.Finally making its debut in the Jondel Engines Category 4 is the MG Metro of Trevor Hancock/Jody Watson.The rally will be based in Newtown with Rally HQ at The Hafren and the central service area will be at Sweet Lamb. The first car will start at 9am on Sunday and return to the finish just before 3pm.The Viking Motorsport/Links Electrical Mid Wales Stages is organised by the Newtown and District Motor Club. For more details about the event please visit www.newtown-mc.co.uk.