REPORT / RIPONIAN STAGES RALLY 2206

WORDS BY ALFIE ELEMENT | PHOTOGRAPY ANDREW SCOTT & ROB SAYER

Elliot Payne claimed his fourth Riponian Stages victory after fending off a late charge from Joe Cunningham, whilst George Lepley secured victory in the opening round of the British Historic Rally Championship.

Set deep within North Yorkshire, the KT Green Riponian Stages Rally marked the beginning of the loose surface stage rallying season. With over one hundred crews signing up to face the fast and flowing stages through the Boltby, Cropton and Gale Rigg Forests, where 44 miles of these classic gravel roads would be lined with die-hard spectators, in the slightly damp and foggy conditions.

The Riponian Stages Rally would also be the first event on the 2026 Fuchs Lubricants British Historic Rally Championship calendar and saw a strong entry lineup for this opening round. With last year’s Champions Baz Jordan and Arwel Jenkins having to pull their entry from the event weeks before the off, George Lepley & Dafydd Evans in their Category 4 Mitsubishi Galant were the first of the British Historic crews on the road. They were closely followed by the hard-charging Ben Friend & Osian Owen in their Ford Escort MKII, the first of the Category 3 entries, along with local man Matthew Robinson, who was certainly another to look out for in his Rothmans-liveried MKII Ford Escort. Along with the usual gaggle of MKII Escorts in Cat3, there was some contrast, which came in the form of three Fiat 131 Abarth’s piloted by Nick Eliott, Adrian Hetherington, and Banger n Cash TV Star, Jack Mathewson.

In Category 2, Ben Smith was out in his Porsche 911 Carrera RS and would be eyeing up a strong result in Yorkshire at the opening round, along with a number of other BHRC regulars, including Jeremy Easson (Ford Escort MK1) and Terry Cree, who swapped out his Category 1 Mini Cooper S for a Category 2 BMW 2002 TI. Only one entrant to Category 5 would start the event, and that was James Lepley in his newly built Mitsubishi Lancer EVO IV, which sent the nineties rally fans into a bit of a frenzy on social media in the run-up to the event.

In the Interclub event, three-time Riponian winner Elliot Payne, alongside Co-Driver Patrick Walsh, lead the pack away in their Ford Fiesta Rally2. With the likes of Liam Clark & Jack Morton, also in a Ford Fiesta Rally2, along with Joe Cunningham & Joshua Beer in the Ford Fiesta RS WRC, who were also expected contenders for the rally win.

MORNING LOOP

Local lad Elliot Payne set the pace for the interclub event on all three of the morning tests, leading by eighteen seconds over Joe Cunningham. However, Liam Clark was hot on Cunningham’s heels and was just one second back in third. After the morning loop, there were just forty seconds separating the top five competitors at the sharp end.

“I felt rusty after being out of the car for so long, and I`m still not quite happy with the car and how I wanted it, but we will get there”.

Elliot Payne

Meanwhile, in the BHRC, it was a battle of the brothers, as George and James Lepley both set the exact same time through the first stage of the day in Boltby Forest. Just eight seconds slower than the Lepley brothers were Matthew Stroud & Simon Jones (Ford Escort MKII). Sadly, Ben Friend & Osian Owen (Ford Escort MKII) were early casualties in that opening stage, getting caught out and veering off the stage and ending in a ditch.

In stage two, George was the faster of the Lepley brothers, but only by a single second over the 11-mile Cropton Forest test. Over the road in Gale Rigg for Stage 3, the brothers were at it again, setting the exact same time here. Sadly, this is where we would say Au Revoir to James & Co-Driver Tom Jordan, due to breaking the transfer box as well as fuel surging issues it was game over for the Mitsubishi EVO IV.

James said, “I’m impressed with the car and pace, especially considering how basic the car is as it`s Group N spec and I haven’t been out on the stages in a year and a half.”

Richard Hill was also on a bit of a charge and set the third fastest time in the Gale Rigg test; he and Co-Driver Patrick Cooper were just five seconds off the Mitsubishi Galant of leaders George Lepley & Dafydd Evans but were still facing a 32-second deficit overall after the morning’s three stages.

AFTERNOON LOOP

Due to delays in the morning loop, the second pass of Boltby was cancelled in order to get the event back on track. Now, with just two stages remaining, Cunningham & Beer set out from service on a hard charge and took their first stage win of the event by five seconds in the second pass of Cropton. Meanwhile, Clark & Morton were still holding a strong pace in their Ford Fiesta Rally2 and were just one second slower than the overall rally leaders Payne & Walsh through the penultimate stage of the rally.

With everything to play for on the final stage through Gale Rigg, Cunningham threw everything at the Fiesta RS WRC, but Payne & Walsh responded emphatically. A stage win on the final test of the rally sealed their victory by 17 seconds and marked the fourth triumph at the Riponian.

Joe Cunningham & Joshua Beer would have to settle for second place, with Liam Clark & Jack Morton rounding out the interclub event podium, a further twelve seconds behind. Alexander Vassallo & Chris Lees brought their Ford Fiesta Rally2 home in fourth overall, in what was a close battle between them and Daniel Sigurðarson & Ásta Sigurðardóttir, who would round out the top five in the Skoda Fabia RS Rally2.

In the BHRC, George Lepley & Dafydd Evans gathered their fourth stage win of the event in SS5 Cropton 2 and entered the final stage of the rally in Gale Rigg with a comfortable 40-second lead. Hill was eight seconds off Lepley through Stage 5, and Paul Thomson & Josh Davison were, in turn, just a second off Hill through the second pass of Cropton. Unfortunately, Matthew Stroud & Simon Jones would retire from the event in Cropton, after lying fourth in BHRC and second in Cat3; it was a bitter blow to start their season off with.

The final stage, the second pass of Gale Rigg, is where Hill & Cooper set the fastest time by five seconds over Lepley, with Paul Thomson & Josh Davison a further two seconds off the bumper of that Mitsubishi Galant.

George Lepley & Co-Driver Dafydd Evans would, indeed, take the overall historic win at the opening round of the season, with a final winning margin of 35 seconds. In addition to maximum BHRC points in Cat4, finishing the event eleventh overall had delivered a great result to follow up from the last win on the TrackRod in September last year. In stark contrast to last year’s Riponian, where the car failed to make it beyond the opening stage, this result marked a major turnaround. After a torrid 2025 season plagued by mechanical retirements, finishing strongly and securing another victory was a huge positive start to the new campaign.

Finishing second in the BHRC, Richard Hill & Patrick Cooper (Ford Escort MKII) also had a brilliant drive in the tough conditions, picking up a BHRC stage win and the Category 3 win along the way, was a pretty good way to open up their season. Third overall on the BHRC podium and second in Cat3, Paul Thomson & Josh Davison (Ford Escort MKII) were 52 seconds off the lead and could be pleased with their result.

Winners of Category 2, Ben Smith, Co-driven by his father, Steven, in the Porsche 911, also took the Class H4 honours. Having finished 7th overall in the Historics field, Ben and Steven were another crew to be leaving Yorkshire in a good championship position. Jeremy Easson and Mike Reynolds were runners-up in Cat2 in their Ford Escort MK1 RS1600, also topping the H3 Class, whilst Terry Cree and Richard Shores in the BMW 2002 Ti rounded out the Cat2 podium in third.

FINAL RESULTS

NEXT TIME

The British Historic Rally Championship heads to Wales in March for Round 2, where Rally North Wales will return to the calendar after its forced cancellation last year. With world class classic Welsh test on the menu, the playing field in the Championship is pretty level across the board, and we will also see our reigning Champs, Baz Jordan and Arwel Jenkins, make an appearance.

BONUS GALLERY