Cambrian Press Day.. Big success

Excitement is building for motorsport fans with just a few days to go until North Wales Car Club (NWCC) host the 58th Cambrian Rally, a premier event in the British rallying calendar and the media were treated to sneak peak of the high octane thrills that are to be expected at the pre-event press day recently.

The venue for the adrenalin inducing passenger rides for members of the national, regional and local media, along with dignatories was the infamous Great Orme, a narrow twisty ribbon of tarmac clinging to the contours of the limestone headland, near vertical cliffs along one side of the road, a sheer drop down to the Irish sea on the other; not for the faint hearted.

On hand to give his expert advice and insight to the sport was the 2012 Cambrian Rally winner, 24 year old Luke Francis of Rhuddlan. Despite nearly severing his thumb in an accident with an axe recently, Luke was on fine form and said “It was a great opportunity to share my love of rallying with so many journalists and people that have helped keep the Cambrian Rally the top Clubman event that it is.” Luke will be competing on the rally itself this weekend in his near showroom standard Group N Mitsubishi EVO IX and said “I’m looking forward to defending my title and the variety of nine new stages including some new ones will make it a great challenge especially against the more powerful World Rally Cars.”

Luke Francis

Also on hand was Elfyn Evans winner of the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) Academy title in 2012. The young Dolgellau based driver started his rallying career in 2006 with a self-prepared Nissan Micra in the F1000 class, one of the outings that season being the Cambrian Rally on which he won his class. Elfyn is currently based with Malcom Wilson’s M-Sport Ford team in Cumbria and was discussing his experiences so far this year on the WRC, the development of the new Ford Fiesta R5 and his preparations for the next round of the WRC, RACC Rally de Espana at the end of this month.

The volunteer drivers from NWCC and other local car clubs represented a range of age and experience; the youngest Ollie Mellors, 18 from Bakewell to Jon Madoc-Jones, former Clerk of the Course for the Cambrian Rally who is back competing as a driver next weekend. Ollie, behind the wheel of his 2.5 litre Millington powered Proton made a significant impact on the media etc, not just due to his brightly coloured, deep throaty sounding car, but with his driving skills and is making significant progress, taking 4th overall on the last BTRDA round at the Trackrod Rally and is definitely one to watch this weekend.

Ollie Mellor

Underpinning the status of the Cambrian Rally, North Wales Honda and Honda UK have donated two brand new Honda CRV cars for use by the NWCC team for the build-up and during the event. North Wales Honda director, Dave Paveley proudly handed over the cars at press day to Club chairman, Neil Coulston and said “_As a dealership based in Llandudno, we’ve always supported motorsport in North Wales, but Honda UK recognises the importance of both the event and the sport and are pleased to support the Cambrian Rally and North Wales Car Club.”_

North Wales Honda

For those fans unable to travel out to the forests, a display of Group B cars from the 1980’s era of super-powerful rally cars will be held on the promenade in Llandudno close to the pier and will include amongst others Audi Quattro (200 and Short versions), MG Metro 6R4, Hyundai F2 Couple Kit Car and Nissan Pulsar. Some of these cars may run non-competitively around the Great Orme stage during the day.

Phil Kendall

As the rally now creeps ever nearer, the anticipation and interest is building and fans are in for a treat with the new stages and variety of cars competing. Spectators are kindly requested to attend only the stages identified for public access in the event programme and on the website and to avoid parking in areas that could hamper or suspend the rally.

Article and Pics by John Evans (i2ipix.co.uk)