William Creighton scorched to victory on the Nicky Grist Stages (Saturday 12 July), when he won the event for the first time in his Castrol MEM Rally Team Toyota GR Yaris Rally2.
Builth Wells Mayor Cllr. Mark Hammond flagged the cars away from the start of the Quinton Motor Club organised event from outside Strand Hall, as 142 crews headed out for the morning loop of four stages in Monument, Route 60, Halfway and Bowlsey (Crychan).
Co-driven by Liam Regan, number one seed Creighton had the benefit of a dust-free road – offset by the challenge of trying to find grip on the loose gravel surface. He nevertheless set a clean sweep of fastest stage times to arrive at the mid-day service halt on the Builth Wells RFC pitch with an 11.1 second lead. Conditions were a lot more abrasive in the afternoon, and Creighton, balancing tyre management and speed to perfection, held on to win the 45-stage mile event – beating team-mate Meirion Evans by just 2.6 second.
“We were here to learn, but it’s great to win,” said Creighton.
“It was great to score a one-two for the team and it’s another tremendous result for Melvyn Evans Motorsport. A big thank you to the team, to Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy and to everyone who supports us. It’s a real privilege to drive the Castrol Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 and it was great to start the Nicky Grist Stages as car number one and finish as number one!”
Evans lost 12 seconds with a spin on the opening stage – with most of the time lost contributed to the car failing to engage reverse gear. That ultimately cost him and co-driver Dale Furniss victory, but the Welshman was delighted by what he considered to be his best performance on gravel.
Despite picking up a couple of punctures, Matthew Hirst/Declan Dear held second for much of the event. A charging Evans demoted them to third on the eighth and final stage – although the Škoda Fabia R5 crew scored top Protyre Autocare BTRDA Rally Series and Pirelli Welsh Rally Championship points.
Osian Pryce led the hotly contested Historic section from start to finish in his first rally in a Wales Motorsport supplied Ford Escort RS1800 Mk2. Co-driven by Phil Pugh, the 2022 British rally champion finished 12th overall, first 2WD and won the BTRDA Silver Star section.
The first Quinton Motor Club crew home was Martin and Tommi Meadows, who finished seventh in class and 43rd overall in their Peugeot 208 R2.
Over 300 volunteer marshals made sure that the event ran safely and smoothly. Each received a HSE compliant individual First Aid kit, Brace’s Bakery Welsh Cakes (supplied by Jonathan Brace who, co-driven by Paul Spooner, won Class H1 in his Ford Escort RS1600 Mk1) and plenty of bottles of water supplied by Nicky Grist.
The rally attracted thousands of visitors to Builth Wells and the surrounding Powys and Carmarthenshire region. The event is indebted to the wonderful support received from Powys County Council, Carmarthenshire County Council, Builth Wells Town Council, Builth Wells RFC, the businesses and residents of Builth Wells, Gwyn Davies of Penmaenau Farm, Dyfed Powys Police and the landowners – Natural Resources Wales and Defence Infrastructure Organisation Wales – on which the stages ran, in making the event such a huge success.
The event also ran in collaboration with Carbon Positive Motorsport, GoSafe (the Wales Road Casualty Reduction Partnership) and Motorsport UK’s National Motorsport Week.
David Spear Commercial Vehicles was the event’s official car supplier and supplied two magnificent Ford Ranger Wildtrak vehicles – perfect for use by the Motorsport UK Safety Delegate and as Double Zero safety car.
“In these exceptionally hot weather conditions, everyone’s a winner on this year’s Nicky Grist Stages – the marshals, officials and the crews,” said Nicky Grist.
“There was a tremendous battle for victory, and any one of the top three could have taken the win as they entered the final stage. In the end it was a fantastic one-two result for Melvyn Evans Motorsport and an impressive BTRDA and Welsh Championship win for Matthew Hirst.
“The event has once again been a great success and Builth Wells has done us proud. The service area on Groe Park really brings the event into the centre of town and the support we have from the local community is exceptional.”
“Huge congratulations to our event winners, William Creighton and Liam Regan,” said Neil Cross, Nicky Grist Stages Clerk of the Course.
“On behalf of Quinton Motor Club, I’d like to say a massive thank you to all our competitors for taking part in such a successful event and to the army of officials and marshals who performed superbly in the hot weather conditions. Without you, the event wouldn’t have run so thank you.”
