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Gremlin Rally 2005

Sponsored by Dennis Motorsport

Brecon Motor Club

26th/27th March 2005

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The 2004 Welsh Road Rally Champions, John Davies and Neil Bevan, took their first win of 2005 on Brecon MC’s Gremlin Rally. The 180 mile event used its now traditional format of marked maps sections over the Epynt Ranges and Abergwesyn plus two Jogularity sections. It was these two latter sections that were to decide the rally.

The Gremlin had originally been scheduled for 5th/6th March but had to be delayed due to military operations on Epynt. It was put back by three weeks and ran on Easter weekend. It still attracted 93 entries, incluidng 20 for the Historic Rally.

The rally opened with the first Jogularity, which required a 30mph average for most of its length. It used the lanes to the east of Brycheiniog Forest before finishing on the Concrete Road. There were six Intermediate Time Controls.

Gerwyn Jones/Ceri Davies put in the best performance, picking up a total of 29 seconds at the final two ITCs. This was the high point of the their event however; they picked up a puncture before the fourth TC of the Epynt section and then got a Wrong Approach at TC12. They completed the rally in 34th position.

Chris Bowen-Smith/Andy Card had been two seconds behind Jones/Davies on Regularity 1 and cleaned the first 90 minute Epynt section, which contained 23 TCs. They therefore arrived at the first petrol halt at Llandovery with a lead of four seconds in front of Merfyn Hughes/Graham Dance, with John Davies/Neil Bevan a further four seconds further back in third.

In the Historic Rally, Terry Pickering/Mark Appleton had put in the best performance over the Jogularity, but dropped six minutes at various controls on Epynt. Wes Massam/Shon Gosling had been on 1m 08s after the regularity and cleaned the TC section to give them a lead of over a minute at Petrol.

Mike Biss/Cath Woodman and Roger Holder/Owen Dodd were already on the retirement list. Brian Cope/Graham Carter were also out after their Mini suffered clutch failure. Meanwhile Geoff McGladdery/Anthony Harris had gone OTL after going off route and getting stuck.

After Petrol crews tackled the second Jogularity, which used the roads around Llyn Brianne and had three ITCs. Graham Middleton took a break from stage events and brought a standard Hyundai Coupe to the Gremlin. With Raymond Davies put in the best performance over the second regularity, however they'd dropped 37 minutes over Epynt. They went on to finish in 38th position.

Middleton's penalty of 8 seconds over the Jogularity was matched by John Griffiths/Mike Burrows in their Volvo. Large penalties on other sections saw them take 32nd place at the Finish.

Amongst the leaders, Smith-Bowen/Card dropped down the order as they collected over two minutes of penalties. Merfyn Hughes/Graham Dance took the slender lead; they ended the section seven seconds ahead of John Davies/Neil Bevan. Martin Leonard/Kevin Chaffey were third 17 seconds off second. Steve Head/Graham Raeburn were now fourth, 50 seconds off the lead.

There was no respite for competitors as the Jogularity was followed by a Time Control over Abergwesyn. Four forestry loops added to the challenge. There were 12 TCs and 11 Route Checks. All the time controls were timed to the minute. It was to prove a cruical section.

Critically, Merfyn Hughes/Graham Dance dropped a minute on the Devil's Staircase section. John Davies/Neil Bevan and Steve Head/Graham Raeburn cleaned all the controls, although the latter crew only just survived a near scrape with the barriers as they decended the Staircase. Davies/Bevan now had a 43s lead from Head/Raeburn, with Hughes/Dance 10s behind in third.

In the Historic Rally, both Wes Massam/Shon Gosling and Bill Wyatt/Paul Robinson cleaned Abergwesyn and maintained their top two places.

After a second petrol halt back at Llandovery, there was just another run over Epynt for crews to deal with. This time fourteen crews cleaned all 24 time controls, these included the top three and so the final top three placings were the same as they had been after Abergwesyn.

In contrast there was a major shake up in the Historic Rally. Long time leaders, Wes Massam/Shon Gosling, dropped five minutes at various controls and dropped to third. Bill Wyatt/Paul Robinson lost two minutes, but were vaulted by Bob Gibbons/Mick Valentine, who were clean at all TCs and took the win by 37s.

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OVERALL RESULTS

	Pos	Driver	Navigator	Car	Penalty
	1	John Davies	Neil Bevan	Vauxhall Astra	1m 13s
	2	Steve Head	Graham Raeburn	Vauxhall Nova GTE	1m 56s
	3	Merfyn Hughes	Graham Dance	Subaru Impreza	2m 06s
	4	Martin Leonard	Kevin Chaffey	VW Golf GTi	2m 30s
	5	Robert Wilson	Dylan Jenkins	Peugeot 205 GTi	3m 07s
	6	Huw Evans	Patrick Walsh	Ford Escort RS	4m 19s
	7	Chris Smith-Bowen	Andy Card	Ford Escort RS2000	4m 44s
	8	Paul Heal	Matt Heal	MG ZR	5m 11s
	9	Bob Gibbons	Mick Valentine	Ford Escort RS2000	6m 40s
	10	David Jones	Glyn Price	Peugeot 205 GTi	6m 54s
	11	Bill Wyatt	Paul Robinson	Triumph TR4	7m 17s
	12	Scott Jonas	Andy Ballantyne	Ford Escort	7m 37s
	13	Wes Massam	Shon Gosling	Volvo Amazon	8m 10s
	14	Chris Jenkins	Tony Brooks	Austin Mini	8m 30s
	15	Elgan Jones	Anthony Davies	Vauxhall Astra	8m 37s
	16	Alyson Acreman	Byron Jones	Honda Civic VTi	10m 16s
	17	Terry Pickering	Mark Appleton	Mini Cooper S	10m 22s
	18	Keith Jenkins	Matt Fowle	Saab 96 V4	10m 59s
	19	Rob Price	Mark Coleman	Vauxhall Astra GTE	12m 05s
	20	Neville Frampton	Mike Grey	Mini Clubman 1275GT	14m 11s
	21	Anthony Gluyas	Richard Preece	Opel Manta	15m 50s
	22	Martin Higgins	Peter Chappelle	Ford Fiesta	16m 26s
	23	Mark Hatton	Robin Moses	Peugeot 205 GTi	18m 38s
	24	Phil Kendall	David Coles	Peugeot 309 GTi	18m 48s
	25	Gareth Edwards	Andrew Edwards	Suzuki Swift GTi	21m 12s
	26	Wynne Jones	Don James	Volvo Amazon	21m 46s
	27	Neil Lewis	Simmon Lassam	Lancia Integrale	21m 55s
	28	Roy Gillingham	Peter Blackett	Reliant Sabre 6	22m 11s
	29	Ding Boston	Alan Coombs	Riley 1.5	22m 37s
	30	Andy Lane	Stan Appleton	Triumph TR4	23m 35s
	31	Allan Alford	Ted Williams	Peugeot 205 GTi	26m 57s
	32	John Griffiths	Mike Burrows	Volvo 144	28m 14s
	33	Gareth Reed	David Bradley	Toyota Corolla	30m 41s
	34	Gerwyn Jones	Ceri Davies	Ford Escort	36m 00s
	35	Robert Davies	Ian Cooke	Peugeot 205 GTi	36m 04s
	36	Martin Evans	Alun Probert	Nissan Micra	37m 19s
	37	Nigel Phillips	James Morgan	Peugeot 309	40m 56s
	38	Graham Middleton	Raymond Davies	Hyundai Coupe	55m 30s
	39	Ian Orford	Peter Barnard	Proton Compact LSi	55m 48s
	40	Roger Hicks	Mark Hamilton	Ford Escort RS2000	56m 18s
	41	Steve Wood	Peter Collins	Vauxhall Astra GTE	61m 11s
	42	Steve Durbin	Jon Davies	Peugeot 205 GTi	92m 50s
	43	Paul Swindels	Dick Howatt	Triumph TR7	130m 23s
	44	Roger Powley	Leigh Powley	Hillman Imp Super	174m 51s
	45	Steven Powell	Dave Sanderson	Austin Healey Sprite	216m 17s
	46	Robert Brown	Gwawr Hughes	Peugeot 309 GTi	216m 33s
	47	Wayne Arrowsmith	Chris Shapland	Ford Fiesta	226m 17s
	48	Gareth Morris	Kelvin Hughes	Ford Escort RS	256m 24s
	49	Paul Edwards	Phillip Crisp	Peugeot 205 GTi	398m 12s
	50	Bob Holloway	Andrew Holloway	Peugeot 205 GTi	675m 04s
	51	Matthew Jones	Richard Morris	Vauxhall Cavalier SRi	787m 43s
	52	Stephen Hier	L A Hier	Vauxhall Nova SR	854m 20s

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