By Paul Evans
Either Osian Pryce or Matt Edwards will be crowned 2021 British rally champion after one enjoyed led from start to finish to score a magical victory and the other had to make miracle emergency repairs to reach the finish on the Visit Conwy Cambrian Rally.
For Pryce, the penultimate round of Britain’s premier rally championship could not have gone better.
An incredible start saw him complete the opening 5.93-mile Gwydir stage with a 10.4 second lead after a brave attack in treacherously wet and muddy conditions paid dividends for the Volkswagen Polo GTI R5 driver.
Pryce’s lead remained the same after Penmachno (SS2).
The strategy had always been for him and co-driver Noel O’Sullivan to not take so many big risks from then on, but instead drive as fast as necessary to maintain their advantage.
But that plan changed when title rival Edwards hit problems, leaving Pryce with a 56.8 second lead.
The double British champion and two-time winner of his home Cambrian Rally had felt confident that set up chances Edwards had made to his Yuasa Rally Team Volkswagen Polo GTI R5 made in midday service would enable him to launch a counterattack and take the lead in the afternoon.
After all, he and co-driver Darren Garrod had just set fastest time in Alwen (SS3) to reduce the gap to 6.2 seconds.
However, disaster struck near the start of Gwydir 2 (SS4) when Edwards’ hit a bump in the road.
Whilst this section of gravel forest track had caused no issues whatsoever in the morning, this time it launched his Polo GTI off the road and into a bank, breaking a compression strut and pushing the front right wheel back into the wheel arch.
Edwards had lost 1 minute 40 seconds by the time he’d limped to the end of the stage, where it was feared that his rally was over.
And with bonus BRC Joker points at stake, retirement would have ended his title challenge.
Yet in a characteristic never give up effort, Edwards managed to make emergency repairs and miraculously nursed the car through the remaining three stages to reach the finish on Llandudno promenade in sixth position overall.
It was a long way from the victory he’d hoped for, but more importantly he had finished third in the BRC category which added to his three Joker bonus points helped him to close the gap to just eight points in the series.
Despite easing off, especially on the muddier and rougher sections, Pryce cruised to a magnificent 1min 04.6secs win.
His maiden victory on the Cambrian Rally continues Pryce’s incredible record of finishing on the BRC podium in every round so far this year, with his success tally now standing at two maximum points scores (including his bonus Joker win on the Mull Rally), second on the Grampian Rally and Trackrod Rally Yorkshire and third on both the Neil Howard and Nicky Grist Stages.
With two wins on the Nicky Grist Stages and Trackrod Rally Yorkshire, a second placed points finish on Mull and a third (Cambrian Rally), a fourth (Neil Howard Stages) and a non-finish on the Grampian Rally Edwards is in a very strong position.
And with five scores to count from seven rounds towards the final BRC points tally, Pryce had two high scores and Edwards two lower scores, including a zero, to drop.
It’s not even a care of whoever finishes ahead of the other on the final round will be champion, because if Edwards finishes second and Pryce third, Pryce will be champion.
But if they finish first and second, whoever is ahead will be champion.
Whatever happens, Melvyn Evans Motorsport is most likely to win the BRC Teams’ title for the first time – meaning both major BRC trophies will be coming to Wales.
But for now, Pryce can celebrate a very impressive win on the Cambrian and an eight-point lead in the series.
“I knew that to beat Matt on his home rally, something which a lot of people said couldn’t be done, that I would have to try to get the job done in the first two stages,” said Pryce.
“We did exactly what we needed to do and backed off a little bit on stage three. With a ten second lead you’re already thinking that if you don’t make a mistake it’s going to be hard for someone to take a big chunk of time out of you on stages that are repeated.
“The plan was to then use our heads on the afternoon loop. I was expecting a counterattack from Matt, but we knew what we needed to do to maintain our advantage.
“It was really unfortunate that Matt hit problems on the opening stage of the afternoon, and that of course completely altered our approach.
“From then on it was a case of getting the car home to the finish. It was painful sometimes in the rougher and more slippery sections because we were going so slowly, but when conditions were okay we were able to press on a little bit and enjoy ourselves.
“It’s great to win the Cambrian for the first time.
“You always start a rally with the aim of an outright victory and that’s our first of the season and I’m delighted.
“It makes the battle for the British Rally Championship title very interesting. It’s between Matt and myself now and of course the points to drop will play a significant role in the outcome.
“But looking back at the season so far, I couldn’t have really done a lot more to give myself a better chance of lifting the trophy and I have to be happy with that.”
Despite his miraculous mechanical masterclass of emergency running repairs, from which he salvaged an important points-scoring result, Edwards couldn’t hide his disappointment as he crossed the Cambrian Rally finish ramp.
“Whilst I feel lucky to have got the car back to the finish of the Cambrian Rally, my overriding emotion is of huge disappointment,” said Edwards.
“We made a few changes to the car’s set-up in service after the morning loop of stages and I was happy to commit one hundred per cent to those changes.
“But we never got the chance to find out if those changes would have worked because just three corners into Gwydir we hit a bump that threw us across the road.
“It was the second time through that stage and it wasn’t a section of road that we’d even considered would do that to the car. But it launched us across the road and into a little bank which broke a compression strut.
great spec viewing area on Visit Conwy Cambrian Rally new tarmac stage, cars in view for long sequence pic.twitter.com/oPBtOT7oMS
— Alyn Edwards (@alyn_edwards) October 22, 2021
“It was fifty-fifty as to whether we’d park it up after that because the chances of us getting through Penmachno the way it looked was slim.
“But I never give up and just strapped it up the best I could and persevered.
“From that moment on it was in the back of my mind that if the straps break it would instantly turf us off into the trees without any warning whatsoever.
“We’d slowed, but we were still pulling eighty or ninety miles an hour in places.
“It’s incredible that we were able to reach the end of the rally and finish third in the BRC.
“These points won here have kept our title hopes alive and now it’s all to play for on the final round.”
Visit Conwy Cambrian National Rally – top 10 finishers
1. Osian Pryce/Noel O’Sullivan (Volkswagen Polo R5)….45mins 23.4secs
2. Garry Pearson/Niall Burns (Škoda Fabia R5)….46mins 28.0secs
3. Seb Perez/Gary McElhinney (Ford Fiesta Rally2)….47mins 43.3secs
4. James Wilson/Arthur Kierans (Hyundai i20 R5)….47mins 55.5secs
5. Stephen Petch/Michael Wilkinson (Ford Fiesta)….47mins 58.2secs
6. Matt Edwards/Darren Garrod (Volkswagen Polo GTI R5)….49mins 32.0secs
7. James Williams/Dai Roberts (Ford Fiesta R5)….49mins 50.7secs
8. Emma Gilmour/Claire Mole (Ford Fiesta R5)….50mins 31.9secs
9. Alan Carmichael/Claire Williams (Hyundai i20 R5)….51mins 18.4secs
10. William Creighton/Liam Regan (Ford Fiesta)….51mins 28.2secs
British Rally Championship – overall Drivers’ points after Round 6
1. Osian Pryce….106(J)pts
2. Matt Edwards….98(J)pts
3. Matthew Wilson….53(J)pts
4. Rhys Yates….53(J)pts
5. Sam Moffett….37pts
6. Seb Perez….36pts