Last weekend’s North Wales Rally Services rally introduced a brand new concept with both a 2wd rally in the morning followed by a 4wd rally in the afternoon, both rallies tackled 43 miles in the classic Dyfi Forest complex.

The event was the opening round of the British Historic championship, Pirelli Welsh National and ANWCC series

Last year’s winner, Osian Pryce, now in a Escort RS1800 for the first time, led the 110 2wd cars away, both historic and modern, from the Dolgellau start at 7.31am.

Ross garage owner, Steve Bennett, together with Osian Owen, in the Dave Jenkins Motorsport run Escort RS1800, was seeded at 14 in a very high quality entry.

Bennett stopped the clocks sixth fastest on the opening, eight miles of Dyfi West. Consistent times on both the Big Ray and Gartheiniog tests saw him arrive in service fifth overall. Some 43 seconds behind leader Nick Elliott, but just five seconds off fourth place.

The opening stage of the second loop soon saw Bennett move up to fourth after second placed Pryce punctured. He then consolidated this with fourth fastest on stage five, but sadly on the final stage, three miles from the end, a rear tyre rolled off the rim and he dropped 30 seconds, sending him back to fifth at the end. However, it was a good solid start to his championship campaign.

Reigning series D3 class champions, Ben Friend and Cliffy Simmons, in the Allglass Escort RS1800, got off to steady start and were embroiled in a class battle with Stuart Egglestone in a similar car. The northern driver held a slender 11 second lead at service, but sadly Friend’s run ended with a blown engine within sight of the finish of the last stage.

In the 4wd event, which started from Dolgellau early afternoon, Bob Morgan was debuting his new Winner Garage Skoda Fabia, along with Ade Williams. Morgan, whose engineering skills have been put to good use in developing this new car, was using the event as a test to iron out any problems.

The new 2WD concept drew rave reviews from many competitors as a possible way forward to boost entry levels at UK events.

The 2WD event was won by Nick Elliott and Dave Price in the Kellands Escort RS1800, and Dylan Davies and Llion Williams took victory in the 4WD event in his Subaru Impreza.