WWRS R.A.C. Championship heads for Mid Wales Stages

The epic stages of Pikes Peak, Myherin and Hafren will form the perfect setting for the second round of the West Wales Rally Spares R.A.C. Rally Championship, the Mid Wales Stages (Sunday 2 March).By any measure, the hugely popular event has attracted a fantastic line-up including many of the fastest drivers in historic rallying. The rally will also set a new record for the R.A.C. Rally Championship with no less than 77 registered contenders gathering in Newtown. It marks the biggest field of historic championship entries for up to five years and underlines the enduring popularity of historic rallying.Sadly, the Mid Wales will be missing a key part of the historic rallying fraternity following the recent death of TV film-maker David Winstanley and his absence will be felt very strongly on what was always one of his favourite rallies. The organisers of the R.A.C. Rally Championship plan to honour David’s memory during the rally.Heading the field away from Newtown on Sunday morning will be another tremendous line-up of 18 pre ’68 cars in the Walker Diecastings Category 1. This includes contenders in the Aldon Automotive Mini and Imp Cup, which got off to a flying start on the Red Kite Stages. On round one, the competition in Category 1 was incredibly fierce and it took a tie-break to split Ray Cunningham/Gary McElhinney (Mini Cooper S) from Simon Wallis/Graham Wride (Lotus Cortina) after nearly an hour of competition. Battle will be rejoined as soon as the leading crews attack the Pikes Peak stage on Sunday morning.However, this is far from a two-way battle as newly-registered Dessie Nutt/Geraldine McBride (Porsche 911) and Graham Waite/Gill Cotton (Volvo Amazon) are more potential winners, as is the redoubtable Bob Bean in his Lotus Cortina. For a rare foray into Wales, veteran Bob will again be partnered by Malcolm Smithson, while the similar car of Gwilym Roberts/Don James was right on the pace on the Red Kite.Chasing Cunningham in the Mini and Imp Cup will be his elder brother Frank, co-driven by Arron Forde, and Clive King/Russ Joseph, while the Sunbeam Imp Sport of Geoff Taylor/Steve Greenhill is a welcome addition to the R.A.C. Championship to head class B1. In class B3, the Ford Cortina Mk2 GT of Bob and Dale Gibbons should set the standard.In the Capital Construction Category 2, husband and wife crew Chris Browne and Ali Cornwell-Browne got their R.A.C. campaign off to a perfect start on the Red Kite, but they face a fresh challenge this time around in the form of new R.A.C. contenders David Stokes and Guy Weaver in their similar Ford Escort Mk1 within class C5. The newly-built Escort Mk1 of Warren Philliskirk and Eurig Evans is another leading contender, while welcome championship newcomer Jeremy Easson tops class C4 in the Datsun 240Z owned by co-driver Mike Reynolds.The pace of Northern Irishmen Stanley Orr and Brian Cairns on the Red Kite suggests that they will be close to the overall Category 2 pace and are strong contenders for class C3 in their Pinto-powered Escort Mk1. However, there is plenty of opposition in this super-competitive class including Terry Cree/Richard Shores (BMW 2002), Peter Smith/Patrick Walsh (Opel Ascona), David Kirby/Chris Rixon (Escort Mk1) and Steve Magson/Darren Smith (Escort Mk1). Heading class C2 will be the 1600cc Escort Mk1 of Robin Shuttleworth/Ronnie Roughead.Last year’s Mid Wales winners Nick Elliott and Dave Price head a sensational entry for the Rob Smith Rallying Category 3, with most of the very quickest Ford Escort Mk2s packed into the top 10. Running second on the road will be Red Kite winner Richard Hill and his new co-driver Steffan Evans, while Matthew Robinson and Sam Collis run at number three and head to Wales fresh from two victories in February.Out for the first time in 2014 to chase overall glory are crews like Jason Pritchard/Phil Clarke and Kevin Davies/tba, while Terry Brown/Den Golding, Tomas Davies/Eurig Davies and Meirion Evans/Iwan Jones add to a fabulous field. Ranged against the Escorts is the Sunbeam Lotus of Owen Murphy/James O’Brien, which heads class D4 and is joined by two more examples in the very capable hands of Guy Anderson/Kim Baker and James Stait/Mike Harris.Another strong field will contest class D3 for the Pinto-powered Escort Mk2s and the pack is headed by Shawn Rayner and Declan Dear, who will hope for a clear run after problems on the Red Kite. It was Gareth Lewis and Dan Holley who took maximum points on the Red Kite and they will be very strong along with other contenders like Adrian Young/Gwynfor Jones, Paul Fry/Mike Steele and Ben Friend/Sean Kennedy.Class D2, for the 1600cc cars in Category 3, has an encouraging entry and is headed by championship newcomers David and Nenah Goose (Ford Escort Mk2). They will go up against the Hillman Avengers of Graham Thatcher/Robert James and Keith Davison/Henry Richardson and the Talbot Sunbeam of David Hopkins/Tony Vart.The Holton Homes Category K for FIA specification cars has more support this time around as the Escort Mk2 of Tom Coughtrie/Calvin Cooledge is joined by two more examples for Rob Smith/Alun Cook and Darren Moon/Alan Walker. Smith and Moon will both be chasing top six overall finishes, though Moon has a novice co-driver who is more used to driving than reading the notes.Running alongside the historics are the cars in R.A.C. Category O for open two-wheel drive cars and heading the pack is the spectacular Toyota Starlet of Leyton Waters and Kevin Bowcott. Rivals to the flying Welsh crew include Escorts for Barry Stevenson-Wheeler/John Pickavance and Dave Hemingway/Simon Ashton and the Opel Manta of brothers Simon and Alistair Crook.The rally will be based in Newtown with the central service area at Sweet Lamb. The first historic car will start at 9am on Sunday and return to the finish at 3pm. The Mid Wales Stages is supported by Viking Motorsport and Links Electrical Supplies Ltd.The Mid Wales Stages is organised by the Newtown and District Automobile Club. For more details about the event please visit www.newtown-mc.co.uk.


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