Exceptional Welsh rally talent Ieuan Rowlands, and co-driver Kelvin Savage, dominated the fourth round of the 2004 TOTAL Peugeot 206 Super Cup to record their second win of the season on Saturdays Llandrindod Wells based Mutiny Rally.
The Llan Ffestiniog man, and his Dolgellau based co-driver, mastered the tricky conditions in the dry and dusty forests of Mid-Wales to continue an amazing run of form that has seen them finish on the podium every time they have competed in a Peugeot 206.
Rowlands signalled his intentions from the very start. He was fastest of the Peugeot’s through the fourteen miles of Radnor, despite being briefly held up behind series leader Gareth McHale. The Irishman’s rally starting badly when he broke the suspension on his car, then suffered a spin as he fought to get his ill handling 206 to the finish of the stage.
McHale’s woes meant Rowlands was now the first Peugeot Cup Car into stage two. He was again forced to back off as the crew encountered a stricken Mitsubishi, the car was on its roof and partly blocking the stage. Having checked the driver and co-driver were uninjured Rowlands pressed on to record another fastest stage time in the 206 Super Cup.
As a result of the incident in stage two, the remainder of the Peugeots were delayed from entering the stage. This meant Ieuan had no idea of his rivals stage times, forcing him to guess how hard to push for the following four stages. He judged it perfectly and found he held a thirty-second lead over second placed Mike Faulkner as the crews reached the second service halt in Builth Wells. Stuart Jones was a further five seconds back in third.
Rowlands’ service crew took the opportunity to replace his car’s crushed exhaust for a fresh unit before the cars headed back out for the final three stages of the day. With a healthy thirty second lead Rowlands could now control the pace of the rally from the front, his intention was to take it relatively steadily and preserve both his car and his lead.
Special stage seven proved to be extremely rough in places, one competitor described it as like driving on the Moon. In a bid to avoid punctures, and to avoid doing any damage to his car, Rowlands backed off and conceded nineteen seconds to a hard charging Stuart Jones. However, Rowlands conservative pace did not prevent him damaging his new exhaust!
A tidy and controlled drive from Ieuan on the penultimate stage of the rally gave Stuart Jones the chance to claw back a further three seconds. Rowlands picked up the pace for stage nine, the final stage of the day, and sealed his victory with another fastest stage time.
The crowd pleasing Welshman returned to the finish in Llandrindod Wells to spray the champagne and to reflect on yet another win.
“It has been a real team effort today. I must thank my service crew, my cousins Sion and Islyn as well as my brother John who didn’t compete today in order to help me out for giving us such a reliable car. The cars took a real battering today, the stages were so rough in places, it would have been so easy to have done some serious damage to the car. The dust was also a problem, it was finding its way into the car and affecting Kelvin’s throat, as well making visibility difficult at times. I am really looking forward to Swansea Bay now, hopefully both the reliability of the car, and our run of form, will continue.
With half the season now gone, and with two wins, a second place and a third place, from four events, Rowlands now leads the 2004 TOTAL Peugeot 206 Super Cup. The next round of the series is the Swansea Bay rally on July 17th, held in the forests of South Wales.
