REPORT / CAMBRIAN RALLY 2025

WORDS BY ANDY COOK | PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANDREW SCOTT & ROB SAYER

Since 1955, the North Wales Car Club has been getting its hands dirty in National motorsport, and its flagship stage rally, the Cambrian, would return to the forest of North Wales this year in celebration of the club’s 70th year of organizing motorsport events.

With its Rally HQ in the North Welsh seaside town of Llandudno, the event would hand-pick a selection of the gravel stages that have become world-famous over the decades, such as Elsi, near Betws-y-Coed, Clocaenog Forest, Brenig, and Alwen Forest.

Offering up a tad over sixty stage miles, the event would attract a bumper entry of over 130 crews from multiple national rally championships, including hosting the final round of the Pro Bite British Rally Championship, and the penultimate rounds of both the ProTyres BTRDA Rally Championship, and the Pirelli Welsh Rally Championship.

For the BRC crews, their last outing was back at the beginning of September at the Rali Ceredigion, and although geographically not that far from the Cambrian, it was an Asphalt event, and so it was all change to a loose surface gravel setup. Heading into this final round of the series, at least mathematically, it was a three-way race for the title between William Creighton & Liam Regan in a MEM Toyota GR Yaris Rally2, their team-mates, Meirion Evans & Dale Furniss in the sister car, and Estonians, Romet Jürgenson & Siim Oja, representing M-Sport in the Ford Fiesta Rally2. For either Evans or Jurgenson to stand an outside chance, they would need Creighton to have a heap of bad luck and effectively finish out of the points, as well as score maximum points themselves.

Meanwhile, in the Junior British Rally Championship, it was an all-Irish head-to-head battle between Kyle McBride & Darragh Mullen and Joseph Kelly & Killian McArdle with both crews in the Peugeot 208 Rally4 spec machines. Although effectively, McBride would only need to finish the event to claim the JBRC crown, Kelly still had to show up just in case.

Sam Touzel & Max Freeman had already sewn up the Open title at the Rali Ceredigion; the BRC National Rally title was, however, still up for grabs at the Cambrian. Chris Richmond-Hand would arrive in North Wales leading Rob Cotton in the standings by just 7.5 points, so everything was to play for between them.

Elliot Payne is a three-time BTRDA Rally Champ, and has held the title since 2022; however, he arrived at the Cambrian, the penultimate round, with it all to do, nothing less than a win was required, else Matthew Hirst & Declan Dear could be stealing the silverware and title away in North Wales. Hirst & Dear would also be looking to make a big impact on their Welsh National Rally Championship standings at the Cambrian. Although the multiple Welsh Champs had opted to focus their efforts on the BRC Open this season, which meant they hadn’t scored at the opening two rounds of the series, the leaderboard now looked very different from previous years, and so the likes of Liam Clark and James Giddings were to be the main focus of the title battle this time.

LEG 1

The morning was scheduled to begin in Elsi, and as the rain poured down, an off from one of the Mini Challenge crews early on triggered a stage cancellation, which saw the crews diverted onto SS2 Clocaenog. Time was getting on, and it would be late morning before any real action would be seen out in the Welsh Forest, and that would be with the longest test, an 11.88-mile stage through Clocanog Forest, which produced a number of punctures across the field, which brought back some rather bad memories from the Grampian for some crews, namely Garry Pearson.

PHOTO: MAX MCRAE & CAMERON FAIR | BY ROB SAYER

Max McRae and Cameron Fair had been contesting their BRC season in a Citroen C3 Rally2; however, they would appear at the Cambrian in a Skoda Fabia RS Rally2, and the early signs were positive. The young Scotsman set the benchmark time, which was just short of six seconds quicker than Championship leaders, William Creighton & Liam Regan in the Toyota GR Yaris Rally2.

“There was a bit of exploring to do at the start, so there was a bit of sideways.”, “I’ll take that, that’s nice, there’s still more to come” a rather chuffed Max said at the stopline of Clocaenog.

PHOTOS: ROMET JÜRGENSON & SIIM OJA | WILLIAM CREIGHTON & LIAM REGAN | BY ANDREW SCOTT

BRC hopeful, Romet Jürgenson felt that he was lacking a bit on the commitment side on that opening test. The young Estonian was also lacking the feeling, so much so that he felt that he didn’t even recognize himself behind the wheel of the M-Sport Ford Fiesta Rally2. For now, he was some 8.9 seconds off the pace of McRae and 2.8 down on Creighton in front and would head off into the next stage in search of his “Mojo”

PHOTOS: MEIRION EVANS & DALE FURNISS – BY ROB SAYER | MATTHEW HIRST & DECLAND DEAR – BY ANDREW SCOTT

The other BRC title outsiders, Meirion Evans & Dale Furniss, were fourth after the first one and were the leading Welsh National Championship crew, just 3.2 ahead of Matthew Hirst & Declan Dear, who were leading the way in the BTRDA. In the lead-up to the rally, Hirst and Dear weren’t shouting about their potential BTRDA title chances at the Cambrian, but to be ahead of Elliot Payne & Patrick Walsh after just one stage was a promising way to start their event. Liam Clark & Jack Morton would round out the top three of the BTRDA Crews, although Clark thought that the first run through Cloc was “a bit sketchy” in places, having to dodge a few big rocks that had already been dragged out in front of him.

PHOTOS: ELLIOT PAYNE & PATRICK WALSH – BY ANDREW SCOTT | LIAM CLARK & JACK MORTON – BY ROB SAYER

A pair of stages to the east of Clocaenog Forest in Brenig and Alwen would see Max McRae & Cameron Fair continue to hold steady at the top of the leaderboard. Jürgenson won the Brenig Stage, getting the better of McRae by a slender 0.7 seconds, and Meirion Evans posted the fastest time in Alwen, again by a slender time of just a single second over McRae. McRae was enjoying driving the Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 car on these Welsh Stages and it was showing in the times.

PHOTO: MAX MCRAE & CAMERON FAIR – BY ANDREW SCOTT

“It’s been super safe, and I haven’t felt like I’ve been pushing hard,” the young Scotsman said after the morning’s loop. “The Citroen has been so good all year, but this (the Fabia) today is just suiting my driving style nicely with the mud. We’ve tried a lot of new things with the notes for this weekend, just as it’s a new car and as a test for next year, but it’s all working really well, so I am happy.

The lead for McRae and Co-Driver Fair was at 8.7 seconds over William Creighton & Liam Regan as the crew reached the midpoint in the rally, but for Creighton & Regan, the morning was going to plan.

“I think we’ve just found a nice rhythm, we’re just at what feels nice and comfortable, and we’re not taking any risks.”

In other words, Creighton just needed to keep it exactly where it was and see the job through.

PHOTOS: WILLIAM CREIGHTON & LIAM REGAN – BY ROB SAYER | MEIRION EVANS & DALE FURNISS – BY ANDREW SCOTT

Behind Creighton, teammates Meirion Evans & Dale Furniss were just 2.4 seconds behind and were happy to be “there or thereabouts” after the morning loop.

“We’re in the mix. I’m happy, it’s been OK” the Welshman said, “The level is very high”, comparing himself to the likes of Creighton and Jürgenson, who are use to competing on the international stage, “but the feelings are really coming on nicely with the car, I’ve not been really playing with the car as most of it is me.”

Holding P5 overall, Hirst and Dear were right where they needed to be for the GoldStar title fight, and with a decent buffer of well over half a minute to Payne and Walsh, their morning had been more than ideal in the Skoda Fabia R5.

“We’re not focusing too much on the BRC times today, but even still, we are doing OK, we’ve got a bit in hand (to Elliot Payne), but still a long way to go, and we’ve gotta watch out for punctures.”

Liam Clark & Jack Morton were holding third in the BTRDA, which also translated to third in the Welsh, behind Hirst, with Meirion Evans continuing to lead Welsh-registered crew.

PHOTO: DAVID HENDERSON & CHRIS LEES – BY ROB SAYER

Arriving in North Wales, third in the standings, BTRDA SilverStar front runners, David Henderson & Chris Lees, spent their morning building up a lead of over 46 seconds in their MKII Ford Escort, over Tony Simpson & Simon Rogers, in the Ford Fiesta Rally4. Simpson, who has been absent from a stage rallying for probably around a year, was keeping SilverStar regulars Lewis Hooper & Rhys Edwards in the older spec R2 Fiesta in check behind them in third.

PHOTO: TONY SIMPSON & SIMON ROGERS – BY ANDREW SCOTT

The BTRDA Bronze Star title scrap was also in full swing at the Cambrian, Nigel & Kaz Jenkins came out of the blocks fighting in their Vauxhall Nova, with a mammoth time on the opening test through Clocaenog Forest. The pair stopped the clocks almost twenty-four seconds quicker than their title rivals, Dylan Fowler-Bishop & Dan Evans in the Nissan Micra. This first stage of the day had set Jenkins up perfectly to push on for the rest of the morning loop, ending the loop with a 33.8-second lead over Fowler-Bishop & Evans.

PHOTOS: NIGEL & KAREN JENKINS – BY ROB SAYER | DYLAN FOWLER-BISHOP & DAN EVANS – BY ANDREW SCOTT

Elsewhere, the Junior British Rally Championship fight would continue to rage on in North Wales, Joseph Kelly would be leading title rival, Kyle McBride, after the morning’s action. Just over seven seconds was Kelly’s lead, but even a win wasn’t going to be enough here. McBride and Co-Driver Darragh Mullen definitely had more to give and seemed positive despite their morning gamble of tyres not really paying off, but the fact of the matter was that they only had to get the car home for the result, and the rally win here wasn’t essential to take the title.

PHOTOS: JOSEPH KELLY & KILLIAN MCARDLE | KYLE MCBRIDE & DARRAGH MULLEN – BY ROB SAYER

“We took a gamble on tyre choice, and we decided to run with two spares. Then, the first stage was cancelled, so we were running a bit heavy, so not ideal, and it didn’t work in our favor. Still three more stages to go, and we’ll get back at it this afternoon.”

KYLE MCBRIDE

In the BRC National Cup, Chris Richmond-Hand was given his little Toyota Starlet the full send out on the Welsh gravel stages, pushing as hard as he could to keep up with the Subaru Impreza of Rob Cotton. Cotton and Co-Driver Richard Crozier were, however, leading by 11.5 seconds.

“We’re not pushing on, and we’re not taking any risks, we’re just driving our own rally,” Cotton expressed, “He’s (Chris) right behind us, so fair play to him, he’s trying. I’d certainly rather be in this (Subaru) than a Starlet” Cotton goes on to say, “We just need to not do any stupid, not take any risk, and just behave ourselves really. We’ve had a couple of little issues, and I’m not driving amazingly, but no risks.”

PHOTO: ROB COTTON & RICHARD CROZIER – BY ANDREW SCOTT

AFTER STAGE 4

LEG 2

The afternoon’s loop would offer up a further three stages (repeats of Clocaenog, Brenig, and Alwen), and the weather would once again take a turn for the worse, making for rather challenging conditions out in the Welsh Forests. Jürgenson had experienced some turbo boost issues with his Ford Fiesta over the morning loop, but that was now sorted, and he came out of the midday service like a boy racer from the early nineties, “ON A MISSION”. The young Estonian picked up stage wins in the second pass through Clocaenog Forest and then Brenig to take over the lead of the rally from Max McRae, heading into the final stage through Alwen Forest with a 3.5-second lead.

PHOTO: ROMET JÜRGENSON & SIIM OJA – BY ROB SAYER

Behind that battle for the rally win and with the final stage of the rally and indeed season, William Creighton & Liam Regan were doing exactly what they needed in their Toyota GR Yaris, holding third ahead of their team mates, Meirion Evans & Dale Furniss, who themselves were having a pretty good day in the office, having picked up a stage win themselves on SS4 in Alwen Forest.

PHOTOS: WILLIAM CREIGHTON & LIAM REGAN | MATTHEW HIRST & DECLAN DEAR – BY ANDREW SCOTT

Matthew Hirst & Declan Dear were holding a solid P6 overall and had extended their lead in the BTRDA GoldStar considerably to over 53 seconds to Elliot Payne & Patrick Walsh over the afternoons stages, with just the final stage to go, they were now staring at their first ever BTRDA title.

The first stage back out after service, Kyle McBride and Darragh Mullen had caught and passed Joseph Kelly & Killian McArdle for the lead of the Junior BRC. They turned their seven-second deficit from the morning’s loop into a twelve-second victory over the afternoon’s three stages; their efforts would therefore seal the deal on the coveted Junior British Rally Championship title.

PHOTO: KYLE MCBRIDE AND DARRAGH MULLEN – BY ANDREW SCOTT

As the rain fell in biblical proportions, William Creighton & Liam Regan launched their Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 into the final 4.82 miles of the season through Alwen Forest. The pair would emerge from the stage just missing out on the rally podium by 1.2 seconds, but that did not matter; it did not matter in the slightest, because they had just added their names to a long list of rallying greats as they would claim the 2025 British Rally Championship title! Despite missing out on a round of the championship, Creighton & Regan had racked up enough points from the other five rounds to end their season on top; the final points margin was more than eighteen points to their nearest rivals, who had tackled all six rounds.

This BRC title was a great addition to the pair’s CV, which also includes the Junior British Rally Championship (2021) and the FIA Junior World Rally Championship (2023) titles.

PHOTOS: WILLIAM CREIGHTON & LIAM REGAN | LEFT: BY ANDREW SCOTT | RIGHT: BY ROB SAYER

“What an amazing year, first time with the Yaris and first time with MEM. Its taken a lot of work to get here and its just a huge thanks to everybody that helps Liam and I”,  “Liam has done a great job all year”, “The journey that we’ve been on, we had the Junior World Rally Championship, the Junior British Rally Championship and now this and it’s been with the Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy the whole way along. They are the main people who’ve been behind us for a number of years now, and I’m just so happy that even with missing a round, we’ve been able to win the championship. It’s amazing, it feels good.”

William Creighton

MEM Teammates, Meirion Evans & Dale Furniss brought the sister Yaris home third on the podium, which would also mirror their final classification in the overall British Rally Championship. The Cambrian had been a challenging event for the pair but had delivered a solid result, and they were also awarded the Welsh National Championship win. Evans’ overall season this year had been pretty good, and on the gravel at the Cambrian, P3 was a decent result to end it with, and the Welshman knew it.

PHOTO: MEIRION EVANS & DALE FURNISS – BY ANDREW SCOTT

“I have to be honest, at the start of the year, I didn’t expect to be in with a shot of the championship at the end. I think we had a bit of a way to go. It’s really positive, and we’ve been really in the mix today on gravel. I know where I need to work and improve; it’s the second pass that I’m getting killed on all the time.

“I’m pretty happy, these guys aren’t slow, and to take it down to the wire with a chance still, is good.”

Meirion Evans

The final stage shoot-out between Max McRae and Romet Jürgenson would deliver one final twist in Alwen Forest. Despite Jürgenson heading into that final stage with 3.5 seconds in hand, it would need both crews to compare times at the stop line to determine who had taken the rally win.

PHOTO: MAX MCRAE & CAMERON FAIR – BY ANDREW SCOTT

Astonishingly, Max McRae & Cameron Fair had not only made up that 3.5-second deficit, but had also found another 5.6 seconds somewhere in the stage and would score their maiden British Rally Championship rally win. The young Scotsman was as surprised as Jürgenson and, in fact, everyone; it was a mega time, but was also a well-deserved rally win. McRae’s win was also the first time that the family name had won a round of the British Rally Championship since his Father, Alister, won the Scottish Rally back in 1997 in a VW Golf Kit Car.

PHOTOS: MAX MCRAE & CAMERON FAIR – LEFT BY: ANDREW SCOTT – RIGHT BY: ROB SAYER

“That’s great.” I wasn’t expecting that. I was a bit down after the last one, and then I wouldn’t say I pushed super hard on this one, but I just tried to keep it clean and here we are” “The cars just been great, thanks to the whole team, I don’t know what to say, I’m a bit lost for words” “Its good we’ve shown our pace, epecially on that stage, I don’t know how we did that time, but somehow I did”

Max McRae

PHOTO: ROMET JÜRGENSON & SIIM OJA – BY ROB SAYER

For second-placed man Romet Jürgenson alongside Co-Driver Siim Oja, it simply wasn’t to be; the Estonian pair had a great rally at the Cambrian, picking up two stage wins and upping their game as the event progressed. Having just completed their first season rallying in Britain, they would also end as runners-up in the overall British Rally Championship, which in itself was no mean feat against the quality line-up of Talent. Losing out to Creighton & Regain, previous JWRC winners, was always going to be perhaps the choice of anyone to have to lose to this year.

“This season we have shown some good speed on tarmac and on gravel, and now I think it is looking good.”

Romet Jürgenson

Rounding out the British Rally Championship awards, Rob Cotton and Richard Crozier would see the job through in North Wales to bring home the BRC National Cup title for Cotton. Initially, Chris Richmond-Hand & Izzie Holman at times showed glimpses of hope in pushing Cotton’s Impreza; however, the little Starlit, despite numerous upgrades since the previous round, just ran out of puff. Co-Driver Holman would, however, be leaving North Wales with the BRC National Cup Co-Drivers title.

PHOTO: ROB COTTON & RICHARD CROZIER – BY ROB SAYER

Finishing eighth overall, Matthew Hirst and Declan Dear in their Skoda Fabia R5 would scoop up the BRC Open Rally win at the Cambrian; however, there was another thing that happened in North Wales on this rally for the pair. Although they are four times Welsh National Champions, having spent years competing in the BTRDA Rally Series, that title had eluded them, but not this time. 2025 was to be their year and Hirst & Dear would be crowned the 2025 BTRDA Rally Champions at the Cambrian Rally, with just one round to still remaining on the schedule.

“Fantastic, BTRDA Champions, that’s what we came for,” Hirst said, beaming at the end of the Alwen test, “We’ve tried for a lot of years and a lot of hard work, so it’s great to get it in the bag.”

PHOTO: MATTHEW HIRST & DECLAN DEAR – BY ANDREW SCOTT

Behind Hirst & Dear, the outgoing and previous three-time BTRDA Championship title holder, Elliot Payne, and Co-Driver Patrick Walsh would finish second on the BTRDA podium at the Cambrian. Totally outpaced by Hirst and Dear on the day, Payne & Walsh would also have a massive spin on the Brenig test, which did lose them a chunk of time. Regardless, the final time recorded was a whopping 52 seconds down on the victors, but they were also more than 58 seconds themselves clear of the third placed BTRDA finishers, Liam Clark & Jack Morton.  

PHOTOS: ELLIOT PAYNE & PATRICK WALSH | LIAM CLARK & JACK MORTON – BY ROB SAYER

Clark’s top 10 finish would also translate into a P3 in the Welsh Championship as well as the BTRDA GoldStar; this result keeps the Welsh Title fight alive as the Welsh crews head to the final round at the Wyedean. The Forest of Dean will be the final Welsh battle ground and a head-to-head two-way fight would await them with Hirst & Dear for the Welsh Rally Championship title. However, Hirst will arrive in the Forest of Dean the favorite as Clark has never competed on the event.

The BTRDA SilverStar award would deliver an all-Ford lockout on the podium. Stage by stage, David Henderson & Chris Lees continued to build on their morning lead, to the point where there wasn’t really any competition for them, IF only James Ford & Neil Shanks also in a MKII Ford Escort would have registered for the BTRDA, they would have had someone to go after! Nevertheless, the Cambrian would deliver Henderson and Lees’ fourth BTRDA SilverStar win of the year, which sees them now sit at the top of the standings with one rally remaining.

PHOTO: DAVID HENDERSON & CHRIS LEES – BY ANDREW SCOTT

Behind them and finishing second on the SilverStar podium, rallying returnee Tony Simpson would dust off those cobwebs and be straight on the pace in his Ford Fiesta Rally4. “It’s been a year out, so we just wanted to come and do some skids” Simpson said. And fair play to him and Co-Driver Simon Rogers, it was a great performance on some mighty challenging Welsh stages and an encouraging result which we only hope might spur him on to come back out for a full BTRDA assault next year?

PHOTO: TONY SIMPSON & SIMON ROGERS – BY ROB SAYER

The afternoon loop of stages did not go well for SilverStar Championship contenders Lewis Hooper & Rhys Edwards. The first stage back out after services would see them drop a chunk of time in their Ford Fiesta R2 car. They did continue to battle on through the treacherous conditions out on the Welsh stages to get a finish in, but were unable to claw back the time lost and wouldn’t be able to get back onto the SilverStar podium. It was a similar story for Tom Constantine & Tony Walker in the Opel Adam R2 car; the Cambrian didn’t quite bring them the result that they really needed for their overall SilverStar title fight. Together with Hooper & Edwards, both crews arrived in North Wales up front, but would both be leaving on the back foot, heading to the final round of the year.

PHOTO: RILEY CHESTER & BONNIE PAPPER – BY ANDREW SCOTT

Instead, Riley Chester with Bonnie Papper on the notes would secure the final spot on the BTRDA SilverStar podium in their Ford Fiesta R2, ending the rally 16.8 seconds behind Simpson & Rogers.

Meanwhile, in the BTRDA BronzeStar award, there was another dominant performance from Nigel & Karen Jenkins in the Vauxhall Nova. With the BronzeStar title still wide open, the pair really needed the result at the Cambrian. Arriving in North Wales trailing Championship rival Dylan Fowler-Bishop, a strong finish was essential, but the win was the utopia. The pair meant business from the off and sent Fowler-Bishop and Co-Driver Dan Evans a clear signal of intent on the opening stage through Clocaenog Forest. The pair would rack up all three stage wins in the morning loop, which would stun Fowler-Bishop in the Nissan Micra as they built up a lead of over half a minute.

The afternoon’s loop wasn’t an exact copy n paste of the morning, as Fowler-Bishop seemingly woke up a bit after service, also picking up a stage win himself in SS6 Brenig 2. Alas, the damage had already been done, and there was to be no way back for the Mirca to even remotely challenge the Jenkins Vauxhall Nova for the win.

PHOTO: NIGEL & KAREN JENKINS – BY ANDREW SCOTT

Nigel and Karen Jenkins would bring it home for their third BronzeStar win of the season, making it three on the trot, which slapped them right at the top of the leaderboard alongside Dylan Fowler-Bishop and Dan Evans, and now tied on points. However, taking drop scores into consideration, Jenkins had a bad result on Border Counties back in May, whereas Fowler-Bishops has either won or finished second on every round. So with three wins each, it will be winner takes all at the season finale in December at the Grizedale Stages.

PHOTOS: DYLAN FOWLER-BISHOP & DAN EVANS – BY ROB SAYER | ED JAMES & KEVIN LANE – BY ANDREW SCOTT

Rounding out the BTRDA BronzeStar podium, Ed James & Kevin Lane in their Nissan Micra Kit car were another crew that struggled to match to pace on the Cambrian, they crossed the finish line back in Llandudno more than three and a half minutes behind Fowler-Bishop.

FINAL RESULTS

PHOTO: BRC PODIUM – BY ANDREW SCOTT

VIDEO

NEXT TIME

The Cambrian would signal the end of the 2025 British Rally Championship; however, the Welsh title will come down to the wire at the final round, the Wyedean Stages. And although Hirst and Dear have been crowned the BTRDA GoldStar champs, the SilverStar and BronzeStar are still outstanding, and so the Grizedale Stages in December will be where these titles will be decided.

Photo By Andrew Scot