Rally Archive
JJ Brown Memorial Rally
Sponsored by Pant Glas Body Repairs
Caernarvonshire & Anglesey Motor Club
18th/19th January 2025
Winners: Arwel Hughes Jones/Dylan John Williams (Ford Escort)
Photograph: © David Hales Photography
Organiser: Caernarvonshire & Anglesey Motor Club
Date: 18th/19th January 2025
Clerk of the Course: Daniel Jones & Shaun Bee
Route: 155 Miles (Maps 115, 116 & 124)
Base: Penygroes
Starters: 80
The 2025 JJ Brown Memorial was in effect a 150 mile circuit of Snowdonia, taking in most of the challenging narrow lanes that the region had to offer. Everywhere these roads were bordered by unforgiving stone walls, many competitors were to fall victim to these.
Starting and finishing at Penygroes, the event ran a clockwise route around Wales' highest mountain, touching Llanrwst and Porthmadog on the way, with a mid-point petrol halt at Betws-y-Coed.
Eighty crews lined up at the start, although two notable teams, on the published starting list, were absent, these were Mark 'GT' Roberts/Dylan Jenkins and Lewis Morgan/Michael Gilbey. Dafydd Sion Lloyd was a late replacement for Alan James in the navigator's seat of Richard Jerman's Escort.
At Car 21 on the Starters List was the VW Golf of Nigel Davies; the West Wales garage owner had lost his brave fight against cancer ten days before the JJ Brown, and the organisers, as a mark of respect, retained the start number in his memory.
A four mile straight forward section, which ran along the shore of the Menai Strait, and passed Caernarfon Golf Club, was used as a warm up and was cleaned by all crews.
This lulled the competitors into a false sense of ease as the next section, although only two miles long, went through Tryfan Junction Halt and all were late at SS1F. Fastest were Arwel Hughes Jones/Dylan John Williams (Ford Escort), but their steering had suffered a violent bump and the car was now pulling to the left. Just one second further back were reigning Welsh Champions, George Williams/Cadog Davies (Ford Escort), while Iwan Roberts/Jamie Mills (Toyota Corolla) led a tight group, with Richard Jerman/Dafydd Sion Lloyd (Ford Escort) and top seeds Kevin Kerr/Huw Manion (Ford Escort) in close attendance.
SS2S to SS2F ran between Llanrug and Bethel, there was an intermediate time control at the mid-point and all of the leading crews dropped time, with Williams/Davies quickest. However, after the top cars had been through a crash blocked the route for the following crews and the section had to be cancelled. The same thing happened again on the fourth section and this was lost as well.
These issues were of no importance to either Jerman/Lloyd nor Gavin Edwards/Owen Rowcliffe (Honda Civic), both retired before SS2F, the former with a broken compression strut and the latter suffering a broken bottom arm.
A blast up the Nant Ffrancon Valley, which was cleaned by all but one crew, led the route towards the Betws-y-Coed/Llanrwst area. SS6S was to the south-west of Capel Curig and passed the Swallow Falls before reaching SS6F on the outskirts of Betws-y-Coed. The leaders didn't drop time here, but the section did see the demise of Roberts/Mills, whose Corolla suffered a broken gearbox.
Two tight sections, where all picked up penalties, preceded the main petrol halt at the Waterloo Bridge - there had been a splash 'n dash fuel option after the third section at Glasinfryn earlier on.
SS8S was near Melin-y-Coed , with SS8F being below Dinas Mawr; there were two ITCs. Williams/Davies were quickest and emerged from the section with a lead of 15 seconds over Jones/Williams in their ill handling Escort, while Kerr/Manion were ten second further back.
Only three seconds behind Kerr/Manion was the Escort of Carwyn Evans/Aled Pennant, however they broke a bottom arm, a common occurrence during the night, just before the fuel halt and had to withdraw.
Early on in the following section, the final one before Petrol, Jones/Williams hit another bump and this somehow rectified the steering issue, the car was once again fully driveable; to underline this, the pair were fastest to SS9F, four seconds quicker than Williams/Davies.
Iwan Jones/Andrew Lowe (Ford Escort) had been in fifth place at SS8F, but on the next section, around Eidda Fawr, the car broke a panhard rod, they lost four minutes and had to retire at Petrol.
These developments meant that at MC2, Williams/Davies led Jones/Williams by eleven seconds, with Kerr/Manion a minute off the lead in third place. The leading Expert crew, Gareth Jones/Ryan Griffiths (Ford Escort), were in fourth, 14 seconds off third.
After Petrol only four of the top ten starters were still running. Amongst these retirements was the Escort of Andrew Jones/Matt Rees, the winners of the Best Presented Car Award at the start, they were another victim of a broken bottom arm.
Like the first half, the second opened with an easy section, which went from Penmachno to Fynnon Eidda. Almost everyone cleaned this. This wasn't true of SS11S to ITC11a, running south of Llan Festiniog, where all were late. Jones/Williams edged two seconds closer to Williams/Davies, but it was on the following section, which started at Rhyd and finished at Garreg, where Jones/Williams retook the lead as they stopped the clock 41 seconds ahead of Williams/Davies. This put the 2023 Welsh Champions 32 seconds ahead of the 2024 title holders.
The most demanding section of the night now followed, it started at Aberglaslyn and looped around via the Sygun Copper Mines to finish at Beddgelert. Jones/Williams extended their lead by a further eight seconds and then cleaned the final two sections to finish with a winning margin of 43 seconds.
Williams/Davies had to be content with the runner up spot, almost a minute and a half ahead of third placed Kerr/Manion. The top three seeds filled the top three finishing positions, although in the reverse order to those in which they started.
There was a tight finish for the Expert Class win with Gareth Jones/Rhys Griffiths (Ford Escort) just holding off Dewi Jones/Iwan Jones (Mazda MX5); the two had been as close as two seconds apart at one point in the second half, but Jones/Griffiths held on through the final section to end eight seconds in front; they were also fourth overall.
The Semi-Expert Class was won in dominant style by Arwyn Williams/Llifon Williams (Toyota Corolla), they finished more than five minutes ahead of any of their class rivals; they were classified in seventh place overall. David Glyn Jones/Timothy Alan Parry (Ford Escort) won the Novice Class by three minutes.
Despite the carnage amongst the top runners, over half of the entry made it to the Finish, with 44 crews being listed in the final results.
The Spirit of the Rally Award was presented to Gwion Huw Jones & Iolo Dafydd Hughes; running at Car 29 they retired when a drive shaft broke on their Mazda MX5, instead of going home, they then manned a control.
RESULTS
- Overall Positions
- Award Winners
- Class Positions
- Time Penalty Details
- Fail Penalties
- Overall Positions at MC2
- Non-Finishers
- List of Starters