Rally Archive
Barcud Road Rally
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Barcud Motor Club
13th/14th July 2024
Winners: Lewis Morgan/Michael Gilbey (Ford Escort)
Photograph: © Jordan Gullick Photography
Organiser: Barcud Motor Club
Date: 13th/14th July 2024
Clerk of the Course: Paul Jones & Holly Evans
Route: 76 Miles (Map 135 & 146)
Base: Tregaron
Starters: 80
Round Six of the Welsh Road Rally Championship was the Tregaron based Barcud Road Rally. The event having moved for 2024 from its traditional mid-August date to the mid-July slot vacated by Knighton MC's Pacemaker.
An oversubscribed 90 car entry was reduced to 80 starters on the night. They competitors faced what has become the standard Welsh road rally, a short but sharp test. The Barcud was 76 miles in length, with no fuel halt. There was a brief halt and time recovery control at the halfway point.
The first half began just outside Tregaron and headed north, almost as far as Llanilar, then circled around Llangwyryfon and through Trefenter, before finishing at Cross Inn.
The major feature of this part was the large number of retirements amongst the leading crews, only four of the top ten crews made it to the halfway time recovery.
Having been fifth quickest over the opening section, Ieuan Evans/Dafydd-Sion Lloyd came to grief on the second, near Bronant. Their Escort's throttle cable melted, with the throttle stuck open; they survived grazing a bank, but the cable was totally mangled and they were out.
Meanwhile George Williams/Cadog Davies had the engine go sick, probably due to a cracked distributor, and they also joined the retirement list before eight miles had been completed.
Reigning Welsh Champions, Arwel Hughes Jones/Dylan John Williams, withdrew after missing a control due to a plotting error.
Despite these retirements there was a tight four way battle for the lead. All crews dropped time over the opening 2½ mile section, which included two three metre passage controls plus a diversion into a field to reach the final TC. Kevin Kerr/Daniel Jones were fastest here, four seconds ahead of the 2023 winners and top seeds, Stefan 'DR' Davies/Kieran Price. Lewis Morgan/Michael Gilbey were two seconds further back, but one second ahead of Richard Jerman/Shaun Richards.
Davies/Price were the only one of these to drop time on the second section, which put them at the back of lead battle.
The next tight section included the 'wooden bridge' near Glan-yr-afon. Morgan/Gilbey moved to the front here, building up an advantage of 17 seconds over Jerman/Richards, while Davies/Price and Kerr/Jones were tied for third.
It was on this sector that the BMW 318Ti of Gareth Price/Jamie Mills left the fray, as the alternator failed. Shortly afterwards, Gareth Edwards/Andrew Lowe retired with fuel pump problems caused by a faulty switch box on their Escort.
The section continued through to the south of Trefenter and all dropped further time. Jerman/Richards and Kerr/Jones shared fastest to TC10 and moved four seconds closer to Morgan/Gilbey, but Davies/Price fell further back and were now 39 seconds off the lead.
There was no respite as there wasn't a break in the competitive section around Rhydroser. All of the leaders cleaned the next four TCs, but everyone was late, by a few seconds, at the final TC just outside Cross Inn. By this point Morgan/Gilbey held a lead of 16 seconds over Jerman/Richards, with the other two crews being with 48 seconds of first place.
After the brief halfway break, the route moved to the south, although none of the leading four dropped time until TC22. Leading up to that control the route ran around the edge of two fields. Due to the use of over 250 yards of private land, the TC had to be timed to the minute.
Davies/Price were the only crew to make their time at the control, all three of their rivals dropped into the next minute and added a whole minute to their total.
This should have put Davies/Price into a 12 second lead, however they had made an error towards the start of the section. They had arrived at the first TC two seconds early. Under the penalty system this should have given them a four second penalty, however, they had restarted from the Time Recovery Control on their scheduled time and had not dropped any time before they booked in early, this meant that they were running ahead of their Scheduled Time, the penalty for this was a fail. They were out of the hunt. Despite finishing the event with the least amount of time penalties, their one fail consigned them to 39th position.
The final section ran from Olmarch to Llanddewi Brefi, looping down to Llanfair Clydogau in between. It had three TCs. Morgan/Gilbey dropped time at only the first TC and so maintained their lead to the Finish. Kerr/Jones matched the leaders' time on the section and overtook Jerman/Richards at the final control to seize the runner up spot. These three crews were almost four minutes ahead of the rest of the field.
Fourth was taken by Rhydian Ebenezer/Jon Hawkins; the driver having nearly withdrawn from the event after being trampled by a horse the previous day.
The leading Semi-Expert crew, Tomos Roberts/Rhys Williams, finished in sixth place overall, one place, but over a minute ahead of class rivals Carwyn Jones/Steffan Thomas. The two crews were only five second apart at the halfway point, with Jones/Thomas in front, however they fell behind after dropping two minutes at TC22.
Jason Davies/Aled Richards finished just in front of Iwan 'Bont' Roberts/Moi Williams for eighth place, the two crews being separated by just five seconds at the Finish.
There was a close fight for the Novice Class win, with Arfon Jones/Trystan Bryn Evans beating Selwyn Jones/Gwenno Griffiths by only eight seconds.
Of the 80 starters, 44 made it to the Finish.
RESULTS
- Overall Positions
- Award Winners
- Class Positions
- Time Control Penalty Details
- Fail + PC/RC Penalties
- Overall Positions at MC2
- Non-Finishers
- List of Starters