Cave takes shortened BRC win

Welsh rally star Tom Cave has won his first BRC rally, winning the Bulldog International Rally of North Wales by 11 secs over Jarkko Nikara.

“I’ve been waiting to win an international rally for a while, so to finally do it is fantastic – especially on my home event. I really concentrated on making as few mistakes as possible today and it’s paid off. After the problems I had on Tuesday when the steering broke and I went off the road testing my own car, I have to thank everyone who helped get another DS3 organised in time for me to compete this weekend. Needless to say, I am very, very happy with the result.” said the delighted Welshman.

Cave, co-driven by Craig Parry, lead after the second stage in their Citroen DS3 (well, a spare one, after he crashed his normal car in a pre-event test) by 1.7 secs. The young Welshman continued to push and extended his lead as crews reached the service halt.

Cave came out of service like a man on a mission, going fastest on SS7 by a massive 10 secs. However, Cave dropped 10 secs on the very next test, dropping him into the sights of Keith Cronin, making his BRC and 2WD return after 2 years away from the sport.

Then, news filtered through that a BRC Challenge car had caught fire. The police closed the road on safety grounds, and as this was route all the competitors were to travel down on route to SS9. The organisers re-routed the crews, but as the rally was now 90 mins behind time, and nightfall was closing in, they decided to cancel the last 3 stages, and so Tom Cave was declared winner.

Keith Cronin came back with a bang, literally. On the way back to service after the final 3 stages were cancelled, his fuel pump failed. Jarkko Nikara also had problems, breaking a driveshaft and hobbling back to service. Nevertheless, he did take third.

Osian Price made it a Citroen Top 4 lockout in his DS3, 5 secs ahead of Elfyn Evans in fifth, in the highest Ford. Sixth went to Jonny Greer, swapping his usual Skoda Fabia S2000 for a Citroen DS3.

Jukka Korhonen took seventh in the Pirelli Start driver Skoda Fabia R2, having lost concentration with a false oil warning light coming on. Desi Henry lost loads of time with a puncture on SS5, but survived to finish eighth. Ninth went to the man who oh-so-nearly won the WRC Academy last year, before he lost it to an inspired Craig Breen on the final round. Egon Kaur took his Fiesta to ninth. Peter Taylor rounded out the Top 10 in his Renault Clio R3, over 2 and a half minutes off the lead.

Some drivers who didn't make it to the finish include Alastair Fisher, Molly Taylor and Mark Donnelly. Fisher's Fiesta caught fire after a fuel leak ignited on SS5. Keith Cronin stopped to help putting out the flaming Fiesta, getting, along with the rest of the field, a nominal time afterwards. Molly Taylor rolled her Fiesta straight out of the rally on the very first stage.

Round 1 winner and Pirelli from the same rally Mark Donnelly was scrapping with Jarkko Nikara over the rally lead at the start of the rally, only 2.6 secs behind after SS3. But it all fell apart after SS4 when his car went wide after the flying finish, caught a telegraph pole and spun, straight into a tree. The impact was substantial, tearing off most of the front of the car, but, due to the strength of a rally car, both Mark and co-driver Dai Roberts were unhurt.

The MSA Junior Rally Championship section of the rally was won by Garry Pearson, who also won round 1. Pearson survived clattering a log-pile and a bent rear beam to hold off the competition. Two punctures cemented second for Steve Rokland, losing 3 mins after the pair of deflations.

Richard Skyes flew to a 47 secs win in the Challenge Rally in his Citroen C2 R2 Max, ahead of Stephen Smith's Peugeot 106. 25 secs further behind was Damien Smith in third.

In the Bulldog Historic Rally, Nick Elliott took a 16.6 secs win in his MK2 Escort over the MK1 example of Julian Reynolds in second. Will Onions held third up until the final stage, when he fell from the leaderboard and Kevin Davies came though to win.

Matt Edwards took the National Rally on board his Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9, with Tom Naughton half a minute behind in second. The World Rally-spec Mitsubishi Lancer WRC 04 of Tristan Bailey was third, 4.8 secs behind the Group N variant of Naughton.

Round 3 takes crews to the Pirelli Rally in just over a months time. Global Rally News will be covering all the action yet again!