ARC / RD7+8 / RALI CEREDIGION 2024

05/09/2024 Off By admin

WORDS BY ANDY COOK | PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANDREW SCOTT

The battle for the Protyres Motorsport UK Asphalt Rally Championship title would rage on at JDS Machinery Rally Ceredigion for a double header event. The pretty Welsh seaside town of Aberystwyth would play host to Rounds 7 & 8, the penultimate rounds of the 2024 Championship, where a 3-day closed road event would deliver a dominant performance for one of the championship contenders.

Wales is blessed with quality roads and the organising clubs, the Teifi Valley Motor Club and the Aberystwyth & District Motor Club are spoilt for choice; with 184 miles over fourteen stunning stages on the menu. Although the Protyres Championship had been included in the event every year since it first ran in 2019, as the first closed road stage rally in Wales, many of the stages this year were new, although the Welsh road-rallying crews might be a little familiar with them.

Photos By Andrew Scott

Last time out on the Tour of Epynt, Callum Black & Jack Morton would scoop their first win of the season following a slight mishap by the early rally leaders, Mark Kelly & Will Atkins. Black & Morton would therefore arrive in Aberystwyth leading the standings by seven points to Neil Roskell, who also slipped up on the military ranges of Epynt, not even managing to make the top five following an excursion into a ditch.

ROUND 7 / LEG 1 (SS1-2)

The rally would get underway in front of large crowds of locals and rally enthusiasts with two blasts along the Aberystwyth seafront. Neil Roskell who had Rob Fagg alongside him for this one in his Rally2 Ford Fiesta would be the one to take the stage win by just 0.3 of a second over Callum Black & Jack Morton (Ford Fiesta Rally2).

Photos: Sam Touzel & Max Freeman | Neil Roskell & Rob Fagg | Callum Black & Jack Morton | By Andrew Scott

Sam Touzel & Max Freeman (Ford Fiesta Rally2) would set the third fastest time but the pair would step it up a gear on the repeated pass, picking up the stage win on SS2 with a bigger margin of 2.3 seconds. They would therefore lead the national rally at the first overnight halt, 1.5 seconds down on Touzel & Freeman were Roskell & Fagg, with Black & Morton a further 0.7 seconds behind in third.

After those first two blasts in Aberystwyth, the VW Polo of Kevin & Owain Davies would hold P4 with a 3.5-second gap to William Hill & Richard Crozier in the Rally3 Spec Fiesta, who would round out the top five.

Photo: Huw James & Sim Lewis | Darren Atkinson & Philip Sandham | By Andrew Scott

Just outside of the leading five crews, the battle of the MKII Escorts would get underway between Welsman Huw James and Darren Atkinson. James and Co-driver Sim Lewis would edge Atkinson & Philip Sandham by 1.1 seconds at the end of the opening night of activities.

ROUND 7 / LEG 2 (SS3-10)

The next morning the action would resume with some seriously good stages, SS3 Brechfa was new to the event, many would be familiar with the Brechfa Forest from its usage in Wales Rally GB and the World Rally Championship, and others may also be familiar with the roads of the area from local club road rallies.

Callum Black & Jack Morton would be the ones to impress here on this 20-mile test, taking the first win of the morning by a whopping 9 seconds which catapulted him into the lead of the rally. The second test was another new one, the longest of the rally at 26.5 miles, the picturesque Llyn Brianne would be the venue which offered up some stunning scenery, alas the crews would have no time to enjoy such views.

Photo: Callum Black & Jack Morton | By Andrew Scott

The longer stage would just offer Black the chance to gain an even bigger advantage over his rivals, boosting his overall lead by a further 14.5
seconds, the competition was finding it hard to match the pace that was being set.

The final stage of the morning loop was more familiar to the crews, the Nant-y-Moch stage has been a bit of a feature stage of the event since it was born in 2019. It was a tricky test, compounded with lots of mud and dirt being pulled onto the stage where the international crews which ran in front had made cuts. Black and Morton would complete the morning loop of stages with three stage wins under their belts and their overall lead would stand at a sizable 46.3 seconds. It was still only early days, but were Black & Morton already unstoppable and heading for their second victory?

Photo: Callum Black & Jack Morton | By Andrew Scott

Taking the leaders out of the picture, the battle for second and third was a little bit more interesting. Kevin & Owain Davies in the Polo GTi R5 would be holding P2, keeping a pair of Rally2 Fiestas at arm’s length. Davies would have a margin of almost 20 seconds to Neil Roskell & Rob Fagg in third, with Sam Touzel & Max Freeman a further 7.6 seconds down in fourth.

Rounding out the top five, Huw James & Lewis Sim would still be on top of the battle of the MKII Escorts, with a comfortable gap of well over a minute to Darren Atkinson & Phil Sandham.

Back out after service for a repeat of the morning loop, Black & Morton continued their dominant charge with another run of three-stage wins.

“We’ve got like a minute and forty lead coming into here (SS7). We also had a miss-fire when we cranked it up, but I think we are good.”
Callum Black

Photo: Kevin & Owain Davies | By Andrew Scott

Unfortunately, Kevin & Owain Davies would be forced to retire their VW Polo GTi R5 from P2 after picking up a couple of punctures in the repeat of the Brechfa test. Roskell, Touzel and the rest of the field would slide up a place but other than that, the top five would remain unchanged even after another two runs of the Aberystwyth Street stage which would end the day and leg with.

Black and Morton would end the day with a full house of stage wins, and with a healthy lead of well over two and half minutes, the pair could do no wrong. The final day which would hold a further 57 miles over four further stages lay in waiting, this in itself would be a typical one-day national rally.

Photo: Neil Roskell & Rob Fagg | By Andrew Scott

Second-place man Neil Roskell had a bit of an eventful day, but as ever the optimist would keep ploughing on given that the Championship title was still well and truly alive.

“We’ve just got to get to the end, we’ve had nothing but trouble, I had a bad time at the start of SS7, the car rolled into another car. I’ve just got to get to the end and keep my head clean”
Neil Roskell

Holding the final podium place, Sam Touzel was having a rally of ups and downs, the pace he was showing was a huge positive; but there was a bit of a mishap on the sixth stage of the event. “I ran out of talent, it’s my own fault, I overshot on a junction” Sam comments as he arrives at the stop line of one stage with gaffa tape and zip ties holding the bodywork on. This incident aside, he was doing well, despite now sitting in a bit of a no man’s land 1 minute 20 behind Roskell and 2 minutes 47 ahead of Huw James behind him in fourth.

Photo: Sam Touzel & Max Freeman | By Andrew Scott

James was nursing a bit of an alternator issue, but didn’t seem to be phased by it “I think we’ve got an alternator issue now. We’ve got a good lead in the class so we’ll go to service and sort it out”. Behind James, Darren Atkinson was trying to focus on the bigger picture, he probably did expect to be able to beat James on his home roads and was wearing his sensible cap.

“The championship is what we came down here to do and that’s what we’re gonna aim at. We’ve had a few little niggling problems but we are battling through. We’re not gonna beat the locals as they’re flying, so we’re just here to do our job at the end of the day”
Darren Atkinson

POS	LEADERBOARD ROUND 7	TIME
1	#101 C.BLACK / J.MORTON	1:10:20.3
2	#103 N.ROSKELL / R.FAGG	+2:34.9
3	#107 S.TOUZEL / M.FREEMAN	+1:23.3
4	#113 H.JAMES / S.LEWIS	+2:47.7
5	#114 D.ATKINGSON / P.SANDHAM	+1:26.7

ROUND 8 (SS11 – SS14)

The final day of the rally would feature a further 57 miles over two stages repeated, but the weather had taken a turn, it was now wet which added another level of jeopardy to the already challenging Welsh roads.

Black & Morton headed out for the day with their eyes set firmly on the prize, there was no need for any heroism in the cockpit of their Ford Fiesta Rally2 car today, they just needed to see the job through to the end and reap the rewards.

Photo: Callum Black & Jack Morton | By Andrew Scott

With every passing stage, their lead would continue to increase, stage win after stage win would see the pair end the rally with a rather large final margin. With eleven out of fourteen stage wins under their belts, the pair would take to the top step of the Protyre Motorsport UK, Asphalt Rally Championship podium for the third time this season. Their time in Wales at what is fast becoming the UK’s number-one rally had come to an end, it was an astonishingly dominant performance for which their rivals were simply outclassed and had no answer to.

“It was hard work that last stage, it’s my favourite stage of the rally and I said to Dad at the start of the week that I want to have a push in there. When you get to the start of it and you look at the bigger picture, it’s important just to get through. It’s a really enjoyable stage, just a shame that we couldn’t push in some ways but can’t really complain with the result, so we are happy. Jack is triple champion now, so delighted for him and bring on the three shires.”
Callum Black

“Really Really good, I absolutely loved it all year. We’ve had a good fight all year between everyone but Cal has driven a binder all year and this is the best he’s driven since I’ve been alongside him, so I’m really proud of him. Thanks to the team and his Dads for giving us such a top car every single rally and the boys have worked their socks off all the time. It’s been an absolutely amazing event, big thanks to the organisers, these are some of the best roads in Europe, it’s mega and I loved it.”
Jack Morton – 2024 Co-driver Champion

Leaving Wales with a slight tone of disappointment in his voice, Neil Roskell would still however remain in the title fight and knew that there was still a chance at the final round. Second place at the Ceredigion was, however, a decent point haul for him and made up for Epynt, but deep down I think he was disappointed that he was outgunned by Black on this one and he didn’t really get close to him out on the stages.

Photo: Neil Roskell & Rob Fagg | By Andrew Scott

“If he makes a mistake then fine but I don’t think he’s gonna, he’s driving too well but I’ve had a fantastic time and Rob (Fagg) has done a brilliant job. To come home and get second again I feel like I’m getting somewhere again. Alright, the pace is where he is but let’s go to the next round and you never know what happens, lady luck might be on my side. I’ve had a bad beginning to the year with results but I’ve managed to claw it back and climb back up and that’s what you do. So let’s go onto the next round and see what we can do, let’s take the battle to the end.”
Neil Roskell

Taking the final step on the podium, was Sam Touzel and Max Freeman. With two stage wins to his name, Touzel was clearly delighted with his result and it was good for him to acknowledge what he achieved in Wales.

Photo: Sam Touzel & Max Freeman | By Andrew Scott

“I had a couple of moments when I was pushing too hard and it was all a bit of a learning curve but yes, at the Manx I wanted to see what it was like and now I know what it’s like.” “I feel like we are progressing massively and to have Max in the seat and all the training with Matt (Edwards), everybody is supporting me doing this, I can not thank everybody enough and there’s still more to come, so it’s only up form here.”
Sam Touzel

Bringing his MKII Ford Escort home in fourth, Welshman Hugh James would be the best of the rest and would also take the two-wheel drive honours. “It’s been a cracking day to be fair, I really enjoyed it. Challenging but I really like the stages” Maybe just maybe, the Ceredigion event has whetted one’s appetite and he would consider a full championship campaign next year?

Photos: Huge James & Sim Lewis | Darren Atkinson & Philip Sandham

Rounding out the top five and securing the B13 class title for the year, Darren Atkinson would cross the finish line of this long and tough event in his MKII Ford Escort with Phil Sandham beside him calling the notes.

“We’ve come here and we’ve done that (won the B13 title), It’s been a bit fraught but fair to play to locals and Hue, he’s been determined to beat me and he drove well.”, “It’s not been all plain sailing as we’ve had a few problems, but all in all, there’s a good bunch of lads in the class and we all get on”, “Three Shires here we come”
Darren Atkinson

POS	FINAL LEADERBOARD (RD 7 & 8 COMBINED)	TIME
1	#101 C.BLACK / J.MORTON	1:43:57.8
2	#103 N.ROSKELL / R.FAGG	+3:55.8
3	#107 S.TOUZEL / M.FREEMAN	+1:24.9
4	#113 H.JAMES / L.SIM	+4:09.4
5	#114 D.ATKINSON / P.SANDHAM	+1:25.4

GALLERY

CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS

09/09/2024 – The Protyres Asphalt Rally Championship confirmed Callum Black as the 2024 Drivers Champion Click for more info.

POS	DRIVERS TABLE	POINTS
1	CALLUM BLACK	174
2	NEIL ROSKELL	163
3	DARREN ATKINSON	145
4	WILLIAM HILL	138
5	ANTHONY EATON	118

NEXT TIME

The stage is set for a final rally showdown, where the 2024 Championship title will go down to the wire on the closed roads of Ledbury at the Hills Ford (Three Shires) Stages – 14/15 September.