Rally star in the making - Ioan Lloyd.

Ioan Lloyd Prepares for 2019 Junior Rally Title Challenge

By Paul Evans

Having finished runner-up in the Formula 1000 Junior Rally Championship this year, teenage rally star Ioan Lloyd is aiming to go one better in 2019 and win the title outright in his West Wales Rally Spares-backed Citroen C1.

This was Lloyd’s second year of competition, having finished fourth overall in the series 2017, driving a Nissan Micra.

The Llandysul driver bounced back from retiring on the opening round of the 2018 series to score points on every other event. A hard-to-find engine problem didn’t help his title hopes during the year, although a different car for the final round enabled Lloyd to finish the series with flourish – setting him up for a title challenge in 2019.

And next year will be Lloyd’s last chance to win the hotly-contested 14 to 17 year old Junior title, before a move into the Senior Championship or maybe even forestry events in 2020.

“We are very proud of him, his determination to be competitive and despite some setbacks during the year he has always kept smiling,” said his father Gareth Lloyd.

Here Lloyd looks back on a cracking 2018 season.

“Our year didn’t get off to the best of starts, retiring on round one at Anglesey with driveshaft failure and consequently we only scored a single point,” said Lloyd. “We then went to the next round at Weeton near Blackpool where it was a new venue for us and we were looking forward to it. With the brother of my usual co-driver Mathew Jackson on the notes for an absent Jonathan, a wrong slot on stage one wasn’t a good start, but we were still going and had the opportunity to fight to get up the leaderboard. We weren’t on the pace like we had been at the end of 2017, and didn’t feel that the car was healthy – and then we came over a bump and the crown wheel and pinion broke. We managed to get back out thanks to our team of Dad and Paul Jones, and we went on to pick up a few points. After two rounds, we had a lot of work to do before the next round at Brawdy.

“We went into the event having done some work to the car, but an ill Mathew Jackson was unable to sit in so we were lucky that Claire Williams was there to co-drive for the day – so it was all happening before the start! We set off and felt that we had a good rhythm and had a tidy couple of stages but our times didn’t reflect it. We were unable to find the problem, and we managed to get through the day and finish third overall.

“It was then back to the drawing board, but we are fortunate enough to have a brilliant team and everyone was up late at night and in early in the morning trying to solve the problem – although it was like trying to find a needle in a haystack!

“We then made the long seven-hour journey to the Solway Coast Rally, one of my favourite events, where we are on pacenotes and proper roads. Jonathan Jackson was back in the car and the feeling was good through the first two stages, having enjoyed a clean run. We were second overall after the first couple of stages and we knew we had a battle on our hands. We had a really good five stages and we were in the lead, and went into the last three stages with no big heroics and came out third overall. We were happy to finish after the problems we’d had with the car earlier on in the year, and we felt we were really getting to grips with the car.

“We then went to Caerwent for the Patriot Stages where we had Michael Gilbey in the co-driver’s seat and we were looking forward to it. We had a clean rally, didn’t put a wheel wrong all day and finished fourth overall after the car developed a cutting out problem.

“I was asleep in my own bed the night before a rally, which is rare, so I was looking forward o my local event – the Fairfield Merlin Stages at the Welsh Motorsports Centre at Pembrey. Jonathan Jackson was back co-driving for me and, having made a few adjustments to the car, we were looking to finish the rally with good points. We had a clean rally and enjoyed it, but it was back to the workshop to try and investigate further into the car’s cutting out problem before the penultimate round of the series at Cadwell Park.

“We made the trip up to Cadwell after more work to the car and an engine change which was finished on four o’clock on the Thursday morning before the event by my Dad and Mark Williams, which just portrays the determination in our team; it was unreal!

“We went with our heads high and our championship hopes still alive. We did the daylight stages, not having the cleanest of runs with two spins, but we were still in a good points scoring position. It was only until the penultimate stage that we realised that the cutting out gremlin was still in the car. We got through the last stage, but only after a big moment spinning into a barrier at high speed.

“We then went home and had a week to re-arrange before the last round at Anglesey. Another car came up for sale and we knew it had a good pedigree and was a nice car. We went and bought it, and thanks to Nigel Davies from our team at West Wales Rally Spares for going up to collect it 700 miles away! We got the car and were really pleased with it, so we were looking forward to a awesome two-day event in it at Anglesey with Jonathan Jackson back in with me. We got the car sign-written and it was looking the part and ready to attack after a spanner check. We got through the first day loving the car and enjoying it again! We were having a real good run and were right in the mix, even after a slight excursion into a wall on stage two. We dropped to 11th overall after the off, but we were determined to get back up there – which we did by setting a fastest stage time and finishing the event second overall, which gave is the overall runners-up spot in the F1000 British Junior Rally Championship. We were over the moon!

“We are really looking forward to next year, which will be our final year in the championship and we’re going to give it our best to try and win the title!

“I would like to thank my Dad for his amazing work all year, never giving up and always supporting me every step of the way, to Mum for keeping us watered and fed all year and also supporting me every step of the way, to Jonathan Jackson for co-driving for me for the majority of the year, to all the team at West Wales Rally Spares and to everyone who has helped me on my rallying career so far!”

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